#Biden pick Mayorkas says he will stop building border wall

President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to be Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, said Tuesday he will end construction of the Mexico border wall if he’s confirmed by the Senate.

“President-elect Biden has committed to stop construction of the border wall. It would be my responsibility to execute on that commitment, and I have not looked at the question of what we do with respect to the wall that already has been built,” Mayorkas said.

President Trump, who leaves office Wednesday, oversaw construction of 452 miles of border wall, according to US Customs and Border Protection. Significant stretches of border remain unwalled, particularly along the Rio Grande in Texas.

After a protracted government shutdown in 2018-2019, Trump declared a national emergency to redirect defense funds toward the wall. Congress also approved funds.

Mayorkas admitted in response to a followup question from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that it may not be so simple to stop building the wall. Congress last month approved $1.4 billion in additional wall funds, Hawley pointed out.

“What I would need to do is to understand what the law provides with respect to the obligation of funds to construct the border wall and see what the opportunities are to discontinue any such obligations if in fact the law permits,” Mayorkas said.

The nominee, who was deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama, didn’t stray far from Biden’s publicly stated positions on immigration during the hearing.

Mayorkas was asked multiple times to comment on a large caravan of thousands of Central Americans marching toward the US border to seek asylum. He declined to say they will be turned away, saying it would depend on whether they were eligible for asylum.

But Mayorkas also said the Biden administration’s plan to end the Trump-brokered “Remain in Mexico” policy requiring Central Americans to await an asylum decision in Mexico won’t necessarily happen immediately.

The policy change “cannot be accomplished with just a flick of a switch,” he said, indicating that asylum seekers in the current caravan may not be allowed into the US.

Mayorkas stressed that he wanted to focus on the “push” factors inspiring Central Americans to travel to the US and confirmed “I would not abolish” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a DHS agency that plays a key role in deportations.