Border Wall Works, Helps Curb Illegal Immigration, Biden Appointee Testifies

The wall at the U.S.-Mexico border is effective in curbing illegal immigration, an appointee of President Joe Biden testified this week.

“I believe a border barrier can help mitigate the flow,” Melissa Dalton, the assistant secretary of defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs, told senators in Washington on Jan. 23.

A wall works as “part of a system of border security management,” Ms. Dalton said this week, as she faced questioning from members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Under President Donald Trump, the United States built hundreds of miles of the border wall at the southern border. The construction was halted by President Biden and his administration after he took office in January 2021.

“There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration,” President Biden said while campaigning. “I’m going to make sure that we have border protection, but it’s going to be based on making sure that we use high-tech capacity to deal with it,” he added.

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Proponents argue that the border wall deters illegal immigrants by forcing them to spend more time finding a way across the border. Critics say there are more effective measures to put into place.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2020 said that the wall led to a drop in illegal crossings, human smuggling, and drug smuggling. The head of the agency now opposes the wall, although the Border Patrol union still supports it.

“A border wall is not the answer,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said recently.

Despite opposition to the wall from Mr. Mayorkas and President Biden, the Biden administration oversaw the construction of 20 miles of barrier last year. President Biden and the White House said they were forced to use the money for the wall because it was allocated for that purpose under the president’s predecessor.

Some documents, though, have offered a different position.

“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,” Mr. Mayorkas said in the notice for the construction, as he waived laws so the wall sections could be built.

Grilled on Sale

Ms. Dalton appeared in Washington for a nomination hearing after being appointed by President Biden to be the under secretary of the Air Force.

The sales were “a clear effort to circumvent emerging congressional intent,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said.

Lawmakers later discovered that, in some cases, materials were sold for about 3 cents on the dollar of what the government had spent on them. Some buyers are now reselling these materials for ten times the amount they paid the government.

Ms. Dalton told lawmakers in an Aug. 1 letter that the Department of Defense was considering selling off the materials, but lawmakers have come to learn that a decision had already been made at that time.

“Do you concede that the statement you made in your letter about a decision ‘will be made’ was inaccurate?” Mr. Wicker asked.

Ms. Dalton said her answer was “based on the information collected from other components across the Department of Defense, and it was the best available information that we had at the time.”

Ms. Dalton also said later she did not write the descriptions for the products that were sold off after it was noted the descriptions did not mention the wall, President Trump, or Mexico. “So I would have to defer to those” who wrote the descriptions, Ms. Dalton said.

Senators said the answer illustrated why Ms. Dalton is not fit for the Air Force post to which she has been appointed.

“Your unwillingness to sort of account for this and take responsibility to me is a much bigger issue,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) said. “Because there’s going to be something that happens, where this committee and the United States Senate or Congress has to rely on you being forthcoming.

“You’ve shown that you won’t take responsibility … And you were charged with a very important job that had to do with our southern border. And your response time and time again, was ‘I have no responsibilities here whatsoever.’”

A discharge of the nomination to the full Senate requires a majority of the panel, which has more Democrats due to Democrats being in control of the upper chamber.