Biden admin waived 26 federal laws to build new section of border wall

Twenty-six federal laws were been swept aside for the new section of border wall to be built in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.

The laws waived by the Biden administration are all designed to protect wildlife and public health.

They include: the Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Solid Waste Disposal Act, Farmland Protection Policy Act and Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

An analysis of the plans by The Post shows Starr County where the wall is being built continues up to a wildlife preserve, close to farmland which could be polluted, and weaves around small towns which will likely be affected by the construction.

Deborah Sivas, Professor of environmental law at Stanford Law School, told The Post she is “personally troubled” by the waivers because they apply to almost “every conceivable environmental law you can think of.”

 “For any federal project, the agency usually has to assess things … There are many endangered species along the border and they are fragile.

“What this is doing is waiving that whole process and saying ‘just start building’.”

Starr County is home to some 65,000 residents and several endangered species of animals – including the Ocelot, a spotted wild cat – and plants, spread out over about 1,200 square miles that form part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. 

According to Sivas, the waivers allow the Department of Homeland Security to completely bypass environmental review processes and won’t be required to get a permit to ensure it’s not discharging pollutants and hazardous substances, Sivas explained.

“I have really serious concerns about this,” she said.

“It’s not the wall or infrastructure itself that’s necessarily the problem…it’s the staging for it, bringing employees in, building work camps, waste management – none of that will be subject to environmental laws if they are all broadly waived,” she said.

“It’s pretty serious if [the project is] affecting wetlands or stream systems and not going through a review process.

The border barrier design is slated to include 18-foot high, six-inch square steel bollards spaced approximately four inches apart and embedded into a moveable concrete base, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The Biden administration’s announcement about waiving more than a dozen federal laws comes in a stark reversal of its previous stance on the border wall.   

Biden repeatedly voiced his opposition to the wall while running for election in 2020 saying: “There will not be another foot of wall construction in my administration.”

“Building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution,” Biden said in a proclamation to stop the building on January 20, 2021.

The 26 federal laws waived by the Biden administration to build the new border wall are:

• National Environmental Policy Act
• Endangered Species Act
• Federal Water Pollution Control Act
• National Historic Preservation Act
• Migratory Bird Treaty Act
• Migratory Bird Conservation Act
• Clean Air Act
• Archeological Resources Protection Act
• Paleontological Resources Preservation Act
• Safe Drinking Water Act
• Noise Control Act
• Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
• Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
• Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act
• Antiquities Act
• Historic Sites, Buildings, and Antiquities Act
• Farmland Protection Policy Act
• National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act
• National Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956
• Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act
• National Trails System Act
• Administrative Procedure Act
• Eagle Protection Act
• Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
• American Indian Religious Freedom Act

With Post wires