últimas notícias

• Biden could restart some building along the US-Mexico border, The Washington Times reported.
• Biden had pledged to halt construction, but the homeland security chief said “gaps” needed filling.
• The White House press secretary said “limited funding” had been allocated to construction.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

The Biden administration may restart building some of the wall along the United States’ southern border despite President Joe Biden’s pledge to cease construction of former President Donald Trump’s keystone project.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has told colleagues that some construction might resume along the border wall to plug some “gaps,” The Washington Times reported on Monday.

According to the report, Mayorkas said that while Biden had frozen Defense Department funding for the wall, “that leaves room to make decisions as the administration, as part of the administration, in particular areas of the wall that need renovation, particular projects that need to be finished.”

He said construction could resume in gaps, gates, and areas where the wall had been built but planned technology had not been installed, the report said. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

Biden has pledged not to build “another foot of wall.” He halted all federal funding for the border wall on his first day in office and gave officials 60 days to determine how to proceed with Trump’s half-finished project.

That deadline passed in March. Officials told Insider that a plan would come “soon” but seemed to have struggled to work out legally how to divert funding that had been allocated for the wall under Trump to other projects.

Most construction work has been paused, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said on Tuesday.

“Wall construction remains paused, to the extent permitted by law,” she said. “So some has already been funded through a congressional authorization and funding allocation. But as agencies develop for a plan — it’s paused while agencies are developing a plan for the President on the management of the federal funds.”

She added: “It is paused. There is some limited construction that has been funded and allocated for, but it is otherwise paused.”

An expert told Insider’s Mia Jankowicz in March that diverting wall funding was likely not a priority as the administration tackled a surge in border crossings.