Biden Admin to Disregard Environmental, Historical Preservation, and Native American Gravesite Protection Statutes to Build Border Wall Segment

Back in July 2022, Peter Doocy pressed Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on a series of questions about the US border wall started during the Trump Administration.  “Why is the Biden Administration building a border wall in Arizona?” Doocy asked.  Jean-Pierre responded that they were not building the wall but rather “cleaning up the mess the prior administration left behind in their failed attempt to build a wall.”  She then talks about the $8 billion they “saved” and “gave back” to military families, for schools, and for bases.

Perhaps the administration should have saved that $8 billion to give to New York to cover the next 2 years of their “humanitarian crisis” ($12B over 3 years).  And that’s just one city.  Chicago residents are outraged over the $300+ million they’ve spent thus far on the “humanitarian crisis”.  Especially when the funds are being used to pay staffers up to $292 per hour.  Millions of illegal immigrants have poured into our country under his watch.

Doocy continued, “…Biden said when he was a candidate, there would not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration.  So what changed?”  The remainder of the incredibly hypocritical answer from Jean-Pierre can be viewed here:

A DHS publication to the Federal Registry shows that utilizing Section 102 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), DHS has determined the necessity for the construction of “physical barriers and roads (including the removal of obstacles to detection of illegal entrants) in the vicinity of the United States border to deter illegal crossings in areas of ‘high illegal entry’ into the United States.”

The document, signed by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, stated that the “Rio Grande Valley Sector is an area of ‘high illegal entry’.  As of early August 2023, Border Patrol had encountered 245,000 such entrants attempting to enter the U.S…”  The “physical barriers” are estimated to cover approximately 20 miles in the Rio Grande Valley Sector.

As a result, Mayorkas said DHS will be installing “physical barriers” immediately and will be funded through a 2019 appropriation for “construction border barriers in the Rio Grande Valley”.

Mayorkas admits, “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…” and in order to complete the project, the administration is waiving the following statutes for the entirety of the project:

• National Environmental Policy Act
• Endangered Species Act
• Federal Water Pollution Control Act
• National Historic Preservation Act
• Migratory Bird Treaty Act
• Migratory Bird Conservation Act
• Archeological Resources Protection Act
• Paleontological Resources Preservation Act
• Noise Control Act
• Solid Waste Disposal Act
• Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
• Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act
• Antiquities Act
• Historic Sites, Buildings, and Antiquities Act
• Farmland Protection Policy
• National Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956
• Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act
• National Trails System Act
• Administrative Procedure Act
• Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
• American Indian Religious Freedom Act
• Federal Land Policy and Management Act

The wall seems to be fairly important to permit the polluting of our environment, possible destruction of our historic sites and desecration of Native American Graves, and polluting of our waterways.

“The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it had waived 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow border wall construction, marking the administration’s first use of a sweeping executive power employed often during the Trump presidency.

The Department of Homeland… pic.twitter.com/mOoRZhLoPe

— Just Human (@realjusthuman) October 5, 2023

The wall will cover the following areas:

•Starting approximately one mile south of the Falcon Dam and extending southeast
for approximately two miles.

• Starting at the southeast boundary of the Arroyo Morteros Tract of the Lower Rio
Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge and extending southeast for
approximately one mile.

• Starting at the northernmost boundary of the Las Ruinas Tract of the Lower Rio
Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge and extending north for approximately
one mile.

• Starting at the eastern boundary of the Arroyo Ramirez Tract of the Lower Rio
Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge and extending east for approximately
one-half mile.

• Starting one-half mile south of the intersection of Perez Road and U.S. Highway
83 and generally following the Rio Grande River to approximately one-quarter
mile south and east of the intersection of Leos Road and U.S. Highway 83.

• Starting approximately three-quarters of a mile southeast of the intersection of
North Redwoods Street and U.S. Highway 83 and extending southeast to the
northwest boundary of the Los Velas West Tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley
National Wildlife Refuge.

• Starting approximately one-tenth (0.1) of a mile south of the intersection of
Trophy Street and Moonbeam Street and extending east to approximately one
mile south of the intersection of Los Olmitos Road and Farm to Market Road
1430.

• Starting approximately one mile south of the intersection of Los Olmitos Road
and Farm to Market Road 1430 and extending southeast to the northwest
boundary of the La Casita East Tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National
Wildlife Refuge.

• Starting approximately one mile south of the intersection of Mission Street and
Old Military Highway and extending southeast for approximately one and threequarters miles.

• Starting at the northeast boundary of the Villareales Banco Tract of the Lower Rio
Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge and extending east to the western
boundary of the of the Cuevitas Tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National
Wildlife Refuge.