Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called Thursday’s decision by Washington to expand the border wall between the two countries in an attempt to prevent migrants from illegally entering the United States a “backward step,” reports AFP.

“This wall authorization is a step backwards because it doesn’t solve the problem, we have to address the causes” of illegal immigration, the president said at his regular morning news conference.

The administration of US President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that it will begin construction of additional sections of the wall on the Texas-Mexico border in a region facing a wave of migrants trying to cross the border illegally into the United States, Reuters reports.

The Democratic administration’s Department of Homeland Security in Washington said it had to circumvent several laws, regulations and other legal requirements to “ensure the rapid construction of barriers and roads near the international land border in Starr County, Texas.” posting to the Federal Register of the US government.

The move marks a complete abandonment of the Biden administration’s policy on physical barriers, an issue that Trump campaigned on during the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections with his famous “Build that wall” slogan.

But one of Biden’s first actions after arriving at the White House was to issue a proclamation that “not one dollar of American taxpayer money will be used to build a border wall.” Biden also ordered after taking office to review all funding that had already been allocated to this account