Glen Clay Higgins, a Republican congressman and member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security, has introduced the "Finish the Wall Act", which would require the Biden administration to resume construction of a physical barrier between the US and Mexico.
In a press statement, Higgins’ office said the bill had more than 60 co-sponsors and was one of the House Republicans’ "five pillars" to address "Biden’s border crisis".
The wall was one of former President Trump’s election promises during his 2016 campaign, which led to the construction of 24km of wall where none existed before.
Higgins said 737km of "border wall system" (sic) had been completed and that "hundreds of additional miles are fully funded but not yet constructed".
President Biden halted construction of the wall in his first 24 hours in office.
In the unlikely event of the bill being enacted, construction would resume within 24 hours. The act would also require the Department of Homeland Security to spend funds "appropriated or obligated to the border wall system since fiscal year 2017", and submit an implementation plan to Congress with benchmarks for "physical barriers, technology, roads and lighting".
Higgins commented: "Through executive decree, President Biden halted work on the border wall system, created large security gaps, ended thousands of construction jobs, violated signed contracts and left behind huge stockpiles of high-quality steel stacked on private land and unused.
"Biden’s executive action to stop wall system construction, his reversal of deterrent-focused Trump policies, and his endless public statements in 2020 about open borders and easy illegal entry and transforming America into a sanctuary nation are directly responsible for the border crisis, which has indeed become a serious threat to our republic."
The text of the "Finish the Wall Act" is available here.
Image: The US/Mexico border wall in Arizona desert (Mati Parts/Dreamstime)
