Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) denounced President Biden’s decision to continue border wall construction in his state Thursday, saying the move is not in line with his administration’s policies.
“This is a crisis. It’s out of control, but I don’t believe for a minute that Joe Biden wants to fix it,” Cruz said in a Fox News interview, referencing illegal immigration.
“I think this is all window dressing to pretend he cares,” he added.
The Biden administration announced Thursday it will waive 26 federal regulations to speed up border wall construction over 20 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas.
“There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.
That goes against the administration’s previous policy of avoiding new wall construction and against promises Biden made on the 2020 campaign trail. Biden later argued that legal limitations gave him no choice but to use funds provided for the wall, which were first allocated by the Trump administration.
“The money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to reappropriate, to redirect that money. They didn’t. They wouldn’t,” he said. “In the meantime, there’s nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what it was appropriated for. I can’t stop that.”
In the Fox News interview Thursday, Cruz railed against Biden administration immigration policy, claiming that Biden actually wants more undocumented immigrants to enter the country.
Border policy is a key emphasis of Republicans for the 2023 and 2024 elections, and especially for Cruz, who faces reelection next year. Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) is the most notable Democrat who has declared a campaign for the seat.
Democrats were also unhappy with the change. Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) denounced the move as “impotent political posturing.”
He called the change a “wasted opportunity to use executive power to actually fix our asylum system instead of impotent political posturing,” adding that it makes it more difficult for voters to distinguish between the border policies of Biden and former President Trump, his expected 2024 opponent.