In March, illegal migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border exceeded a 22-year high, according to the Department of Homeland Security. A few weeks later, 53 migrants were found dead inside an abandoned tractor-trailer in San Antonio, Texas.
DHS called it the deadliest smuggling case in U.S. history.
While the solution to address immigration is not simple, every president from Clinton to Biden is responsible for building some type of barrier along the 1954-mile border with Mexico.
“Every place in the country is rightly disturbed by the large number of illegal aliens entering our country,” President Bill Clinton said during the 1995 State of the Union.
His comments came a year after initiating Operation Gatekeeper, an immigration plan aimed at preventing illegal immigration in cities like San Diego. The controversial plan doubled the amount of fencing at the border to 62 miles and was declared a failure by members of Congress.
When President George W. Bush took office, he picked up where Clinton left off. In 2006, he signed the Secure Fence Act, a bill that then-Senator Barack Obama supported.
Most of America’s border wall was built during the Bush and Obama administrations. Under Bush, 526 miles were constructed and 137 miles went up during the Obama-Biden years.
Then came Donald Trump campaigning to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it. Our neighbors to the south never did foot the bill, but President Trump did fund a $15 billion, 738-mile border project.
According to DHS, only 73 miles of Trump’s border project focused on new construction, and the remaining 365 miles built focused on replacing crumbling or outdated parts of the wall.
More construction was planned but the project was immediately paused once Joe Biden was sworn into office. On day one, President Biden signed an executive order to halt Trump’s border wall project, fulfilling a campaign promise.
“There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration,” Biden said during an interview on the campaign.
Nearly two years later, DHS has signaled a shift. In a statement, the agency said it intends to replace a barrier, specifically in San Diego, California known to locals as Friendship Park.
This decision came as the U.S. has reached an agreement with Mexico for it to pay $1.5 billion in border security upgrades, according to ABC News.