‘Horrific step backwards’: Biden admin waives protections to speed border wall construction – By Julia Conley (Common Dreams) / Oct 4, 2023
Environmental protection advocates and immigrant rights campaigners expressed horrow Wednesday over a Department of Homeland Security plan entered into the Federal Register that will waive more than two dozen laws in order to expedite the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
The “notice of determination” was entered under Section 102 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act, which was signed by former President Bill Clinton in 1996, and said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas “has determined, pursuant to law, that it is necessary to waive certain laws, regulations, and other legal requirements.”
The 26 laws—which include the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Conservation Act, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act—are being set aside “to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads in the vicinity of the international land border in Starr County, Texas,” the Federal Register said.
