President Biden followed through on a campaign promise and almost immediately halted any new construction of Trump's glorified border fence, but Republicans in Congress are still fighting to see it completed.
Responding to GOP requests for an investigation, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is reviewing Biden's executive orders to see if he broke the law by halting construction. Republicans say he should have continued building the wall to keep immigrants out.
Now the Government Accountability Office is launching a review to determine whether the new president broke the law by freezing the money in violation of budget rules designed to keep Congress in control of the cash flow, the federal watchdog confirmed this week. [...]
The pause on spending “directly contributed” to that flood of border crossers, Senate Republicans said in their plea last week for GAO to opine on the issue. More than 70 House Republicans followed Tuesday in asking for a GAO opinion, which the watchdog typically provides whenever a member of Congress requests one.
Look, I know Republicans are making a dumb argument in obvious bad faith, but considering that Trump's fake wall did not stop anyone from coming here to begin with it's clear that continuing construction would not have prevented anything happening now.
It is entirely ordinary for a larger number of immigrants to approach the southern border at this time of year and, moreover, the logistical challenge of handling the current surge is not a matter of locking down every inch of the border. Immigrants are willingly surrendering themselves to American authorities to ask for asylum at designated checkpoints, not illegally crossing the desert wilderness where Trump's fake wall would supposedly stop them.
Republicans had nothing to say about Trump stealing money from the Pentagon to start construction and that money was also appropriated by Congress. This is anti-immigrant theater and probably coming to their midterm campaigns.
Whoever Republicans nominate for the 2022 midterms and the 2024 presidential election is almost certainly going to run on finishing what Trump started.