The Law Makes Biden Build the Wall

IRLI shows why administration’s refusal is unconstitutional

 

WASHINGTON—The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a Texas federal district court in support of a lawsuit brought by the Texas General Land Office to force the Biden administration to build a border wall. The case has been consolidated with an earlier case brought by Texas and Missouri seeking the same relief.

 

In 2019, Congress passed an appropriations act mandating that billions be spent on new wall construction. Yet the administration has flatly refused to spend this money for that purpose, despite a finding by the Department of Homeland Security that walls are 90 percent effective at stopping unlawful border-crossings.

 

In its brief, IRLI shows why this refusal is a violation of the administration’s constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. The administration has not just refused to enforce the law, but has thwarted Congress’s very purpose in that law: stopping 90 percent of illegal border-crossers with a wall. When an administration goes so far as to block what Congress was trying to accomplish with a law, and instead creates the opposite result, that administration has failed to take care in a way that is extraordinary, and that courts can and should act on.

 

“The Biden administration has abundantly shown itself to be at war with our immigration laws,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. “This is not acceptable in an executive sworn to uphold and faithfully execute those laws. Though the take care clause should not be a cure for every failure by the executive branch, actively working to subvert and reverse the very purpose Congress had in passing a law makes a mockery of the separation of powers set forth in the Constitution. We hope the court sees this outrageous constitutional violation and rules accordingly.”

 

The case is General Land Office of the State of Texas v. Biden, No. 7:21-CV-00272 (S.D. Tex.).

  

For additional information, contact: Brian Lonergan • 202-232-5590 • [email protected]