Trump Administration Waives Environmental Laws to Build Border Wall through Texas National Wildlife Refuge

The Trump administration has announced that it will waive 28 federal environmental, planning, historic preservation and public safety laws in Hidalgo County, Texas, in an effort to accelerate construction of new border wall along our southern border. The notice was published in the prepublication Federal Register today. The document identifies more than 18 miles of new wall segments for waiver, including an eight-mile section that will effectively sever and wall off parcels of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, as well as Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park, the National Butterfly Center and the La Lomita chapel in Mission, Texas.

A map created by Defenders’ experts depicts where the newly waived wall segments in Hidalgo County would bisect and fragment the refuge, effectively severing essential habitat from the United States and causing extensive damage to the wildlife corridor along the river.

The Department of Homeland Security also published today in the Federal Register with a similar waiver for smaller wall segments in adjacent Cameron County that will allow “expeditious construction of barriers and roads” along the border.

The Hidalgo County waiver will be officially posted and take effect tomorrow, October 11.

Jamie Rappaport Clark, Former president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife issued this statement:

“This waiver is the latest attempt by this administration to ram through construction of an unnecessary, expensive and damaging border wall. Waiving environmental, health and safety laws, and purposefully excluding the public from providing input on wall construction threatens wildlife, local communities and regional economies in the Southwest."