Biden administration waives 26 federal laws to allow border wall construction in South Texas

U.S. officials said the administration was required by law to spend money now that Congress set aside in 2019 under Trump, adding that attempts to push lawmakers to reappropriate the funding elsewhere failed.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-build-new-barriers-roads-texas-border-area-2023-10-05/

The Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and Endangered Species Act were some of the federal laws waived by DHS to make way for construction that will use funds from a congressional appropriation in 2019 for border wall construction.

Fucking hell.

🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles: ::: spoiler Click here to see the summary Starr County Judge Eloy Vera said it will start south of the Falcon Dam and go past Salineño, Texas.

There’s a lot of arroyos,” Eloy Vera, the county judge said, pointing out the creeks cutting through the ranchland and leading into the river.

Concern is shared with environmental advocates who say structures will run through public lands, habitats of endangered plants and species like the Ocelot, a spotted wild cat.

And it’s a horrific step backwards for the borderlands,” Laiken Jordahl, a southwest conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, said Wednesday afternoon.

The DHS decision on Wednesday contrasts the Biden administration’s posturing when a proclamation to end the construction on Jan. 20, 2021 stated, “building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution.”

“After years of denying that a border wall and other physical barriers are effective, the DHS announcement represents a sea change in the administration’s thinking: A secure wall is an effective tool for maintaining control of our borders,” Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said in a statement.

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