Biden Says He Tried to Stop Plan to Add to Trump Border Wall

  • Homeland Security announces new construction along Rio Grande
  • President says he does not believe border wall will work

Migrants wait at the US and Mexico border wall in El Paso, Texas.

Photographer: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg
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President Joe Biden said he sought to redirect funds to build a border wall but was unsuccessful — as his administration announced plans to add roughly 17 miles of barriers along the Rio Grande in Texas.

“The money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to reappropriate it, to redirect that money,” Biden said Thursday at the White House. “They didn’t. They wouldn’t.”