The Trump administration announced Friday it will waive dozens of environmental laws and regulations along a 60-mile stretch of the Rio Grande in Texas as it looks to build new barriers and roads along the U.S-Mexico border.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced the decision in a notice in the Federal Register, which says the Big Bend region is “an area of high illegal entry” and that there is “acute and immediate need” to build the barriers.
Under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, as well as the Real ID Act of 2005, Mullin can waive laws including the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act.
Environmentalists have pushed back aggressively against the Trump administration’s efforts to build new border barriers in the Big Bend region, including plans to build a wall through the Big Bend National Park. The Trump administration earlier this year appeared to abandon the latter plan in favor of utilizing remote technology to monitor certain areas.
