Environmental Rules Waived to Speed up U.S. Border Wall Construction

Border wall building in Arizona and New Mexico was expedited by waiving multiple federal environmental laws.

The Trump administration made a major policy move to speed up the construction of border barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border by setting aside environmental laws. To accelerate the construction of a new 36-mile border wall in Arizona and New Mexico, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has approved waivers.

This week, in order to speed up the construction of border walls along around 20 miles of New Mexico's border with Mexico, the U.S. government temporarily suspended environmental protection rules.  On Tuesday and Thursday, she also approved two waivers of the same kind for nearby areas in Arizona. Together these waivers enable the federal government to move faster in building physical barriers and roadways along around 36 miles of the border between the U.S. and Mexico. According to the DHS, by reducing the chances of administrative delays, the waivers help speed up the construction of physical barriers and roads. 24 federal statutes, such as the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, are the several rules whose legal duties are waived by the New Mexico waiver.

Cultural heritage sites, Native American artifacts, and preserving rules for endangered species will be ignored and bypassed by the waivers, according to New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, and she is worried about the new changes. She added that without a proper and accurate environmental review, archaeological resources and sensitive ecosystems in New Mexico will suffer from permanent and lasting harm.