DHS Waives Environmental Laws, Moves to Build Border Wall Through Lower Rio Grande Valley Wildlife Refuge

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem authorized waivers of NEPA, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and other statutes to expedite construction of a border wall through 13 tracts of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Starr County, Texas. The move, using previously appropriated funds, targets biodiverse refuge lands where endangered ocelots and migratory birds have been reintroduced. Conservation groups and local activists argue there is no site-specific security justification given recent declines in CBP encounter numbers and warn of ecological, floodplain and treaty risks. The action is part of a wider pattern of DHS waiver use across the Southwest.