Biden administration waives 26 federal laws to allow border wall construction in South Texas | AP News
Category: News & Politics
Via: texan1211 • 2 years ago • 191 commentsBy: VALERIE GONZALEZ (AP News)
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By VALERIE GONZALEZ Share Share
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Biden administration announced they waived 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow border wall construction on Wednesday, marking the administration's first use of a sweeping executive power employed often during the Trump presidency.
The Department of Homeland Security posted the announcement on the U.S. Federal Registry with few details outlining the construction in Starr County, Texas, which is part of a busy Border Patrol sector seeing "high illegal entry." According to government data, about 245,000 illegal entries have been recorded in this region during the current fiscal year.
"There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas," Alejandro Mayorkas, the DHS secretary, stated in the notice.
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. The waivers avoid time-consuming reviews and lawsuits challenging violation of environmental laws.
Starr County's hilly ranchlands, sitting between Zapata and McAllen, Texas, is home to about 65,000 residents sparsely populating about 1,200 square miles (3,108 square kilometers) that form part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
Although no maps were provided in the announcement, a previous map shared during the gathering of public comments shows the piecemeal construction will add up to an additional 20 miles to the existing border barrier system in the area. Starr County Judge Eloy Vera said it will start south of the Falcon Dam and go past Salineno, Texas.
"The other concern that we have is that area is highly erosive. 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.
"A plan to build a wall through will bulldoze an impermeable barrier straight through the heart of that habitat. It will stop wildlife migrations dead in their tracks. It will destroy a huge amount of wildlife refuge land. 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.
During the Trump administration, about 450 miles of barriers were built along the southwest border between 2017 and January 2021. Texas Governor Greg Abbott renewed those efforts after the Biden administration halted them at the start of his presidency.
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."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection had no immediate comment.
The announcement prompted political debate by the Democratic administration facing an increase of migrants entering through the southern border in recent months, including thousands who entered the U.S. through Eagle Pass at the end of September.
"A border wall is a 14th century solution to a 21st century problem. It will not bolster border security in Starr County," U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar said in a statement. "I continue to stand against the wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars on an ineffective border wall."
Political proponents of the border wall said the waivers should be used as a launching pad for a shift in policy.
"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. "Having made that concession, the administration needs to immediately begin construction of wall across the border to prevent the illegal traffic from simply moving to other areas of the border."
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They should hire Chinese contractors to build the wall. They had to use Chinese workers to build the railroads, didn't they? And besides, the Chinese have thousands of years of experience in and are experts in building big long walls, are they not? America could join in the Belt and Road Initiative as part of the deal and that way maybe some of America's decaying infrastructure could get fixed..
Belt and Road Initiative comes with too many strings attached to it by the CCP. Not worth it.
Wasn't it a POTUS who said "We have nothing to fear bur fear itself"?
Exactly, but today’s POTUS sees Russia and China as primary threats.
We have a couple million Mexican workers already trying to get in.
But if we run short... that may be a good idea.
Well, SOMEONE will have to build "The Great Wall of America". The Canadians will work on their border wall, but will have to wait until Winter.
I remember building a snow block wall when I was in Antarctica, but we could not figure out where the beginning or the end should be.
Seems our Canadian friends are building an igloo. Maybe that is just one of the guard towers, eh?
In Canada's case the wall should be ' Ad Mare Usque Ad Mare' - the Latin expression on Canada's coat of arms that translates as ' From Sea to Sea'.
I have a story about that. Canada's flag used to be like some other Commonwealth nations, a Union Jack in the upper left corner and the Canadian coat of arms on a red background in the centre. But many years ago they had a contest and asked for suggestions from the public for a new flag design. Taking into consideration the fact that Canada stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific and national motto of 'From Sea to Sea' I submitted this design to illustrate the motto:
I thought my design was much more meaningful than the one Canada ended up with, wherein the side bars are red. I understand why the fall colour of a maple leaf is important and the colour of snow as a background, but I have no idea why they chose red bars on each side.
Sorry TiG, it's the best image I could find to illustrate what I said. Maybe it's supposed to be a double wall and a walkway on top like The Great Wall of China. My older brother and I, when I was about 10 years old, built an igloo in our back yard and actually slept in it that night without heat. We never repeated doing that.
So they had to do that in order to fix what they fucked up. When is the "victory lap" scheduled?
When is the "victory lap" scheduled?
As soon as Mexico pays for the wall.
That went out when Biden stopped construction. Maybe we can use the money that was slated for Ukraine to fund this.
That went out
… when it fell out of Trump’s tiny brain and rolled out his mouth.
Sorry - Biden Crime Family needs all that money for Ukraine - gotta keep the money flowing for "The Big Guy".
I think Joe Biden and Mayorkas owe Donald Trump an apology.
So does Donald Trump....................
So Bidens presidency is over now that he’s a racist, right democrats?
Realistically, nothing has changed.
Never should have been halted in the first damned place. Dumbasses.
We are about a month away from progressive posts blaming republicans for stopping it, because they always always supported the wall.
With the EO still out there, they can try to blame them but it will fail (much like everything else they've done).
Amen to that. Still got huge piles of stuff sitting less than five miles outside of my home town of Douglas, AZ.
So trump wants to build the wall and all the left is outraged that we may hurt some small gnat. Biden literally waves the endangered species act and crickets from the hypocrites on the left.
So Biden waved The Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and Endangered Species Act. So Biden is willing to make some species extinct, pollute the water and destroy the environment to get re-elected. I guess Bidens chances of getting re-elected are a greater danger to them than climate change.
This is all about 2024 and placating the Democrats that are starting to feel some of the effects of Bidens open border politics. I doubt anything more than some roads being scraped in will be accomplished. Hell they're still squabbling with Texas over buoys....
Guess they gave up on AZ and their "border boxes".
Yeah, they got "Don't bar the door" Katie Hobbs handling things...
The DOJ sued AZ.
I wonder how long it took them to put
As opposed to a real leader................
Biden laid out the welcome mat and opened the border.
What kind of deal has Biden made with Mexican government to feed and shelter the tens of thousands of would be illegal immigrants if they are successfully stopped at the US border? What is this going to cost the US taxpayer because Biden opened the border and then (maybe) closed it?
Is biden trying to piss off the drug cartels and human smugglers?
Probably not - Hunter needs both.
Daddy's connections in D.C. maybe?
I'm not sure the bullshit out of this administration is worse than Joes dementia or because of it.
And talk about political speak.
So it's not a border wall, It's a wall in the vicinity of the border. What is the over/under that some idiots will buy this and latch onto it?
Nothing, we just need to borrow more.
So does this mean that Arizona will be getting their $2.1M back and be permitted to secure their section of the border?
So we are supposed to give Biden credit for this? You have to fucking retarded to do so.
These are Bidens words on the wall before.
President-elect Joe Biden pledged to end construction of his predecessor’s signature border wall, but halting the ongoing, multibillion-dollar project will be an arduous, complex and potentially costly process.
"There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration, No.
Bidens words now
“The money was appropriated for the border wall,” Biden said. “I can’t stop that.”
“Our policy remains as it was since day one. We are opposed to the construction of the wall.”
I'm not giving this piece of crap credit for doing the "right thing" because he isn't doing it because it's right. He's claiming he has no choice. and anybody who thinks otherwise is making excuses for this Piece of shit.
This is additional information not in the article.
Those words would indeed remove credit from Biden because he is claiming he did not make this decision and in fact disagrees with it. One does not deserve credit for an action one did not make, especially if one is against the action.