[Tweeters] rio grande environmental destruction

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https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/biden-administration-waives-26-federal-laws-border-wall-103738662

*Biden administration waives 26 federal laws to allow border wall
construction*

The Department of Homeland Security announced that the Biden administration
leveraged sweeping executive power to waive 26 federal laws in South Texas

ByVALERIE GONZALEZ Associated Press
October 4, 2023, 3:47 PM

McALLEN, Texas -- The Biden administration announced it 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 so far this fiscal year in the Rio Grande Valley Sector
which contains 21 counties.

“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.

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