Republican Senator Joni Ernst introduced legislation that would allow states to pick up what President Joe Biden’s executive order shut down.
One of Joe Biden’s first actions as president was to sign a series of executive orders reversing much of former President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Among them, one order halted construction of the southern border wall despite materials already being paid for and delivered.
The Department of Defense spends roughly $130,000 per day, or almost $50 million per year, in storage fees to keep and maintain the materials across 20 project sites.
A bill obtained by the Daily Caller, entitled the BUILD IT Act, attempts to resolve that glaring waste.
The legislation would require the federal government to transfer any stored material to any state upon request for use to construct or fortify the border wall.
“This week, due to President Biden’s failure, the southern border will go from crisis to catastrophe,” Ernst told the Caller.
“Instead of securing the border, the Biden administration canceled border wall projects and left materials to rack up dust and dollars. Here’s a simple solution, Mr. President: let’s put the border materials to use, end the taxpayer-funded waste, stop the unprecedented flow of illegal migrants, and finish the wall!” she added.
Title 42 On Its Last Legs
The catastrophe she alludes to is the impending end of Title 42 on May 11th. The public health measure enacted under the Trump Administration allowed the Department of Homeland Security to rapidly expel immigrants who crossed the border.
As it ends, officials expect a historic surge of crossings, which are already at a high of over 8,000 daily encounters. Officials expect that number could pass 10,000 encounters per day.
Tens of thousands of immigrants are waiting at or heading to cities just outside the border, waiting for Title 42 to officially be lifted before they attempt to cross – both legally and illegally.
“I think that there is no question that this is going to be extremely challenging,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said. “I do not want to understate the severity of the challenge that we expect to encounter.”
