DHS waives environmental laws to build more border wall through wildlife tracts in South Texas

McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) -- The Department of Homeland Security says it is waiving more environmental regulations and health rules in order to quickly build more border wall through wildlife refuges in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday announced she has waived regulations to build five miles of new border wall in Starr and Hidalgo counties.

Environmentalists says this includes several sections of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

The segments are paid from Fiscal Year 2019 funds appropriated and approved by Congress and are to connect to existing border wall in the region, DHS says.

This is the seventh environmental waiver Noem has signed relating to border barrier construction on the Southwest border since taking office earlier this year.

And it's the second time environmental laws have been waived in Starr County in the past two years to build border wall. The first time was under the Biden administration.

DHS says this is necessary "to ensure the expeditious construction of physical barriers and roads. Projects executed under a waiver are critical steps to secure the southern border and reinforce our commitment to border security," the agency said in a statement.

But several environmentalists have told Border Report that the waivers will allow border barrier to be built through federal wildlife tracts of land that previously had been protected.

“Trump is inventing a fake emergency to bulldoze and wall off some of the best remaining habitat for wildlife in South Texas,” said Laiken Jordahl of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Jordahl says 31 laws are being waived, including: the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, Migratory Bird Conservation Act, Noise Control Act, Antiquities Act, Eagle Protection At and Fish, Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and Wildlife Coordination Act.

The waivers will allow border wall to be built through 13 refuge tracts of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge where endangered plants and animals live, the Center for Biological Diversity says.

There’s a special cruelty in walling off national wildlife refuges that were created for conservation,” Jordahl said. “These lands exist to protect endangered species and connect fragmented habitat, not to be bulldozed for Trump’s wall.”

Environmentalists say new wall segments in this area threaten endangered ocelots, aplomado falcons and hundreds of migratory birds such as green jays, Altamira orioles, plain chachalacas, Texas tortoise and the Texas horned lizard. Endangered plants like the Zapata bladderpod, Walker’s manioc and Texas ayenia are also at risk.

"Running a wall through endangered species habitat will mean bulldozing endangered plants, so Sec. Noem waives the Endangered Species Act. There's no reason to waive laws unless their actions will violate them," Scott Nicol, an environmentalist with the nonprofit group Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, told Border Report.

Nicol questions why border wall is needed if the number of U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehensions of undocumented immigrants on the border has reached historic lows.

There were fewer than 1,000 arrests per month made in the RGV Sector in June and July, according to CBP data. There were only 4,601 apprehensions in July along the entire Southwest border, that's down 23% from June, and down 90% from July 2024, CBP reports.

"Of course there are not serious numbers of people coming across at these refuge tracts," Nicol said. "Apprehensions plummeted last year."

Jim Chapman, of the nonprofit group Save RGV, told Border Report that the federal land tracts are being targeted because "those are the low-hanging fruit and so they essentially are often times the first to get walled off."

It's land the feds already oversee and they can do with it what they want.

"They are targeting the the wildlife refuge tracks, not because those are particularly known to be heavy traffic areas, but simply because they are federal property and they don't have to go through condemnation and all the legal proceedings that they have to go through when they when they take private land. But it is very, very damaging to wildlife refuges to have essentially an impassable wall, either slicing right through the middle of the refuge tract or cutting it off from the river," Chapman said on a recent Border Report Live show.

"The river really is the source of life for a lot of the wildlife along the river, and so when you put a wall right through it, wildlife on one side, they can't pass to the other," Chapman said.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.