Washington – The secretary of the Ministry of Internal Security, Kristi Noem, bypassing environmental regulations on Tuesday to accelerate the construction of around 2.5 miles of new border barrier between Mexico and California.
Securing the southern United States border is one of the main priorities of the Trump administration, and this is the first exemption from environmental laws for the frontal wall of Trump’s second mandate.
A press release from the DHS said that these laws, which oblige federal agencies to assess whether their proposed actions will negatively affect the field, “can block vital projects for months or even years.”
The renunciation, published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, covers projects near Jacumba Hot Springs, about 70 miles east of San Diego, which were funded by the budgets of the 2020 and 2021 of the protection of the United States and the protection of border.
Last April, San Diego became the upper region along the border for the arrivals of migrants for the first time in decades. The arrivals began to drop sharply last year after the Mexican authorities increased the application and former President Biden has restricted access to asylum in June.
So far, there has been a 70% decrease in migrant arrests this exercise, compared to the same period last year, according to Border Patrol.
By issuing the exemption, Noem quoted the High passages last year in the San Diego region.
“There is currently a sharp and immediate need to build physical obstacles and additional roads near the United States border in order to prevent illegal inscriptions in the United States,” said Noem in the advice of register.
The Earthjustice advocacy group exploded this decision, noting that such exemptions have been issued several times during the first Trump administration and that the announcement comes a few days after the Senate approved a budgetary resolution which seeks to allocate billions of dollars of taxpayers to the construction of border walls.
“The renunciation of environmental laws, cultural preservation and good governance that protect clean and clean water, safeguarding precious cultural resources and preserves ecosystems and vibrant ecosystems,” wrote Cameron Walkup, an associated legislative representative of Terredjustice, wrote in a declaration.
The deputy chief of the American border patrol, David Bemiller, said on Tuesday that more than 50 miles of permanent and temporary sections on the wall had been built since Trump was inaugurated on January 20. The goal is to travel around 1,400 miles of uninterrupted border barrier.
In 2023, the Biden administration was confronted with criticism from its democratic and environmental militant colleagues for having renounced 26 federal laws to grant 20 miles of construction of border walls in southern Texas.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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