Requested by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., has “reversed the course” of President Biden on building a wall on the US border with Mexico, saying a “wall does nothing” and represents a “cruel policy.”
“The Biden administration didn’t have to expand construction of the border wall — and they certainly didn’t have to waive some environmental laws to speed up the building,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in X. “The President needs to take responsibility for with this decision and the course is reversed.”
He added, “A wall does nothing to stop people fleeing poverty and violence from coming to the United States. Walls only serve to push migrants further away, increasing their chances of dying. It’s a cruel policy.”
Ocasio-Cortez said the president should instead “more seriously” examine the “roots of migration,” and “must stop contributing to the destabilization that drives migration.”
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION ACCUSED OF HYPOCRISY FOR PROPOSING BORDER WALL AT WEIGHT OF MIGRANT CRISIS
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez visits the Tornillo-Guadalupe port of entry gate on June 24, 2018 in Tornillo, Texas. He suggested President Biden “reverse course” on building the border wall. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The “Squad” member added that the US must “finally invest in meaningful immigration reform.”
The lawmaker’s comments came as the Biden administration announced earlier this week that it would repeal dozens of federal laws to build a border wall in South Texas.
On Thursday, Biden suggested that the decision to build the wall was out of his hands.
“The money is earmarked for the border wall,” Biden told reporters at the White House. “I tried to get them to reappropriate, to redirect that money, but they didn’t. They wouldn’t. And in the meantime, there’s nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what it was appropriated.”
“I can’t stop it,” he added.
AOC DEFENDS JAMAAL BOWMAN WHO PULLS FIRE ALARM IN ‘MOMENT OF PANIC,’ BLASTS GOP FOR ‘PROTECTION’ GEORGE SANTOS
President Biden delivered a statement during a meeting in the Oval Office on Oct. 5, 2023 in Washington, DC (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
When a reporter asked if Biden believed the border wall would be effective in reducing illegal immigration, the president said, “No.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who first expressed the “immediate need” for a wall, also clarified Thursday that its construction represents no change in the administration’s position.
“I want to address today’s reporting related to a border wall and be absolutely clear,” he said in a statement. “There is no new policy by the Administration related to border walls. From day one, this Administration has made it clear that a border wall is not the answer.”
New York Rep. requested. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to President Biden the “reverse course” in building a wall on the US border with Mexico. (LEONARDO MUNOZ/AFP via Getty Images)
The funds Biden cited were appropriated under former President Trump, who made building a border wall a centerpiece of his successful 2016 presidential campaign.
Ocasio-Cortez, who was first elected to Congress representing New York’s 14th Congressional District in the 2018 midterms, has been a vocal critic of Trump and the construction of the border wall.
A US Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol agent walks toward a vehicle along the border wall at the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, on May 10, 2023. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
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He most recently won re-election in Nov. 2022, defeating Republican candidate Tina Forte with over 70% of the vote.
Fox News Digital reached out to Ocasio-Cortez’s congressional office for further comment, but they did not immediately respond.
