House votes to force Biden administration to restart construction of border wall

The House voted Thursday to require the Biden administration to restart construction of former President Donald Trump's border wall, in a largely symbolic move that highlighted deep divisions in Congress over how to secure the US-Mexico border. The bill passed 224-210, with a handful of Democrats backing the GOP measure. The measure is unlikely to advance in the Democratic-led Senate and faces almost certain opposition from the administration. President Joe Biden halted wall construction after taking office in 2021 and rescinded the national emergency that Trump had declared in order to shift billions from the Defense Department to the border. Since then, the administration has moved to spend remaining wall funding on environmental cleanup efforts and removal of barriers that were installed in sensitive habitats. Biden's efforts have been met with intense opposition from Republicans, who have pointed to rising encounters at the US-Mexico border as evidence that the wall is needed to help control migration. On Thursday, Republicans argued that the border was in "chaos" and that the Biden administration was not doing enough to secure it. They pointed to border patrol agents being pulled from stations to help process migrants, areas left unpatrolled, and an ever-growing maintenance backlog. Republicans have made border security a central aspect of the 2024 campaign, and Thursday's vote was the latest effort to push the administration to act. "We're not going to settle for anything less than a secure border," said Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House GOP leader. Democrats, meanwhile, rejected the bill as a "vanity project" that would neither effectively address migration nor protect national security. They pointed to the border's complexity, the various attempts to build barriers, and the tens of billions spent already on a structure that was never intended to stop all migrants. Democrats also rejected Republican calls to pass stricter asylum laws as a way to stop migrants from crossing into the US. Biden has proposed several measures to address a surge in migration, including a plan to require asylum seekers to first apply in a third country and a proposal to limit access to work permits for migrants who enter the US illegally. But those measures have been met with skepticism by Republicans, who have instead pushed to revive Trump-era policies, including the wall and Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that allowed for the immediate removal of migrants from certain countries. Republicans have also clashed with the administration over immigration funding, with the latest budget impasse centering on GOP demands for new border security funding. The Senate is unlikely to pass the bill, and even if it did, the administration would likely veto it. The White House on Wednesday called the bill "politically motivated" and "ineffective," and said that it would fail to address the real challenges at the border. But House Republicans have maintained that the border is in "crisis" and that the administration is not doing enough to secure it. They have pointed to Biden's handling of the border as evidence that he is not fit to be president, and they made clear Thursday that they would continue to push the administration to act. "The border is not secure, and this bill is needed," said Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a Tennessee Republican.