Resume construction of the border wall at the nation’s southern border and put in place the technology, infrastructure and personnel needed to secure the border, utilizing funding Congress has already appropriated.
Advocate for resuming construction of the southern border wall and deploying technology, infrastructure, and personnel for border security using already-appropriated funds.
Occurrences
Evidence
Senator John Hoeven criticized President Biden's executive actions that created additional exceptions to U.S. immigration law, stating that the administration should focus on securing the border and enforcing existing laws. Hoeven emphasized the need for real border security to end the illegal immigration crisis.
Hoeven has been working to call attention to the illegal immigration crisis and push back on President Biden’s open border policies. Specifically, the senator is pressing the administration to: Reinstate the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) or Remain in Mexico Policy, which required people seeking asylum at the southern border to wait in Mexico while their case was adjudicated. Strictly Enforce the Safe Third Country Agreements requiring that those coming from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala seek asylum there first, otherwise be returned to await the outcome of their claims. Resume construction of the border wall at the nation’s southern border and put in place the technology, infrastructure and personnel needed to secure the border, utilizing funding Congress has already appropriated.
Senator John Hoeven helped secure Senate passage of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Defense Appropriations Bill, which provides increased support for North Dakota’s servicemembers and their missions. The Defense bill was one of the final six FY2024 Appropriations bills approved by Congress today. The bills, which were previously considered and approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee with broad bipartisan support, complete the FY24 appropriations process, and while defense received a 3% increase, the bills provide savings in non-defense spending. The bills passed earlier this month reduced non-defense spending by $10 billion and today’s bills reduced non-defense spending by more than $6 billion.
Hoeven also met with North Dakota National Guard members in Del Rio, Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas in recent years to highlight their missions in support of Customs and Border Protection operations. The senator has also reviewed border operations in the Rio Grande Valley and Brownsville, Texas, and traveled with a bipartisan congressional delegation to Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia and Guatemala to outline the need to work with these nations to stop illegal immigration and prevent human and drug trafficking.
In his latest public appropriations-related activity, Hoeven worked to accelerate military infrastructure tied to the Sentinel program and highlighted FY2027 requests for Minot-related projects; the release does not show any resumed southern border wall construction or new border-security deployment tied to the claim.
The Senate Appropriations explanatory statement says the FY2026 Homeland Security bill provides resources for immigration enforcement and border security operations and includes border-security assets and infrastructure funding, but it does not document resumption of southern border wall construction with already-appropriated funds.
The report says DHS published a Federal Register waiver that would let CBP build border-security infrastructure in Big Bend National Park, including roads, vehicle barriers, and detection technology. It also says CBP said the adjacent-area plans were still in the planning stages, so the wall/infrastructure restart is not yet complete.
The Senate appropriations report directs CBP to provide quarterly status and plan reports on fiscal-year-2026 funds for border barriers and related investments such as roads, lighting, and technology, including obligations since January 2021 and outcomes for new barriers, gap closures, gates, detection, and remediation.
In a June 18, 2024 Senate news release, Hoeven said he was pressing the administration to resume construction of the southern border wall and deploy the technology, infrastructure, and personnel needed for border security using funds Congress had already appropriated.
Assessments
The claim is framed as an advocacy promise, not a promise to personally complete border-wall construction. Evidence from Hoeven’s June 18, 2024 Senate release shows he explicitly pressed the administration to resume southern border wall construction and deploy technology, infrastructure, and personnel using already-appropriated funds, which matches the promise closely. Additional evidence about border visits and related immigration advocacy reinforces that he took visible steps consistent with that commitment. Later appropriations and project-planning evidence does not change the judgment because the promise was to advocate for these actions, and that advocacy clearly occurred during his current Senate term.
The promise was to advocate for resuming southern border wall construction and related border-security deployments using already-appropriated funds. Evidence from Hoeven's June 18, 2024 official release shows he did exactly that: he publicly pressed the Biden administration to resume wall construction and to deploy the needed technology, infrastructure, and personnel using funds Congress had already appropriated. Other evidence shows related border-focused activity, such as border visits and highlighting enforcement missions. The record does not show he achieved full policy implementation, but for an advocacy promise by a sitting U.S. senator, the documented public pressure and related official activity satisfy the pledged action itself.
Hoeven publicly advocated and pressed the Biden administration to resume southern border wall construction and deploy border-security technology, infrastructure, and personnel using already-appropriated funds. That satisfies serious effort for a federal senator, but the supplied record does not show the promised outcome was actually delivered: later appropriations activity supported border security generally and Hoeven’s recent official work focused on other infrastructure priorities, with no evidence of resumed southern border wall construction tied to already-appropriated funds. Because the specific promised outcome was not achieved, this is best scored as not delivered with an effort badge.
The evidence demonstrates that Senator Hoeven repeatedly advocated for resuming border wall construction and for deploying additional border security resources, including personnel and technology. He pressed the administration to use previously appropriated funds and publicly opposed executive decisions curtailing border enforcement. However, there is no evidence that any actual resumption of border wall construction or significant deployment of additional resources using appropriated funds was achieved during this term. The inability to deliver was largely due to lack of executive branch cooperation rather than lack of legislative effort; Hoeven made sustained and documented attempts but failed to deliver the specific outcome promised.