President Joe Biden has canceled all contracts for wall construction on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Defense Department announced Friday.
The controversial U.S.-Mexico border wall project had begun after Trump took over in 2017, channeling billions of Pentagon funds into build additional border barriers.
Biden’s action will send back billions of funds to the Pentagon again.
“DoD has begun taking all necessary actions to cancel border barrier projects and to coordinate with interagency partners,” said Jamal Brown, deputy Pentagon spokesman, in a statement.
Republicans in Congress are lashing out at Biden’s decision, demanding a resumption of construction.
“The president’s decision to withhold funding on the border wall along with other actions his administration has taken have fueled a national security and humanitarian crisis at the southern border,” Rep. Jason Smith (R-Missouri) said at a hearing Thursday.
More Republicans are likely to blame Biden’s decision for an influx of migrants at the border, arguing his policies are causing the rising numbers.
In January, Biden had referred to the border wall construction as a “waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security” and claimed that the wall was “not a serious policy solution.”
