JOE Biden may have broken the law freezing the funds to build Joe Trump's wall as Mexico blames Democratic policies for the migrant surge.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is now investigating whether Biden illegality stopped the funding of the wall – and if their ruling isn't positive, it could help the GOP's argument that he broke the rules.
The watchdog probe was requested by 70 House GOP members on Tuesday before senior Biden officials prepare to visit the US-Mexico border in Texas today as a wave of unaccompanied minors and teens cross into the country.
“He was in the Congress a long time,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), chair of the Senate Republican Policy Committee said.
“He knows it’s the Congress' job to authorize how the money is spent and the president's job to spend it efficiently."
Likewise, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blamed Biden for the border crisis, the Washington Post reported.
“Expectations were created that with the government of President Biden there would be a better treatment of migrants," Obrador said.
"And this has caused Central American migrants, and also from our country, wanting to cross the border thinking that it is easier to do so."
“They see [Biden] as the migrant president, and so many feel they’re going to reach the United States."
It's unlikely Biden will be impeached for freezing border wall funds, noted Politico, but the GAO did determine that Trump freezing aid to Ukraine was illegal and illustrated a “pattern of abuse."
But Trump wasn't penalized over it.
“Faithful execution of the law does not permit the president to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law," the GAO concluded.
Last year, Biden proclaimed that “not another foot of wall” would be constructed while he was in office.
The White House maintains that his freezing funds strategy gave the government time to decide what to do with the money.
An OMB official described it as “a necessary and responsible step for prudent management of federal funds."
Biden's administration also emphasize that they were transparent with the American public about halting the funds, unlike Trump secretly cutting off financial aid to Ukraine.
Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, a manager at the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight said: "A lot of us agree that the border wall was a very stupid idea — a waste of money — but Congress decided to waste the money on that.
“The way to address that is not to have the executive branch override the legislative branch."
The House Budget Committee is "determined to reassert and strengthen Congress' power of the purse” and “will review GAO's response to the senators' inquiry,” Politico reported.
Last year, he was allocated $1.4 billion for the wall via a bipartisan government funding package which was signed into law.
Biden’s pause has been described as a “programmatic delay" by his administration was announced publicly in a presidential proclamation on January 20, 2021.
The money will be released if the freeze is deemed to be illegal.
The probe comes as Biden officials and members of Congress visit the Refugee Resettlement Carrizo Springs Influx Care Facility in Carrizo Springs on Wednesday, Axios reported.
Mexico's president has said "we need to work together to regulate the flow, because this business can’t be tackled from one day to the next."
There have been talks between both countries to stem the wave of crime that has occurred as a result of the crisis as traffickers raked in a whopping $14million a day in February.
The news comes after Vice President Kamala Harris laughed when asked if she would be visiting the border on Tuesday, where pictures show migrant children living in overcrowded conditions.
But today, she told CNN that "absolutely, we will go down to the border" and "yes, we will go" as she noted the other officials who are preparing to make the trip.
On Monday, Trump warned Biden that "bad hombres" were flooding the United States and urged him to finish the wall during a podcast interview with Lisa Boot.
"They’re just starting to comes. They’ll be coming by the millions," he cautioned, joking that Biden should "enjoy it."
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