Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas waived 26 federal laws Wednesday, allowing border-wall construction in Texas to resume under the Biden administration for the first time since former president Donald Trump left office.

“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,” Mayorkas wrote in the notice.

The new construction project will add an additional 20 miles to the border wall in Starr County, Texas, which has been reported as an area with “high illegal entry.”

This marks a noticeable shift from President Joe Biden’s original stance on the matter. “Building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution,” Biden said in January 2021 when he first became president.

Among the 26 laws that the DHS waived included the Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and Endangered Species Act, all notable environmental laws that prevented further construction of the border wall. The project will be funded by a congressional appropriations package from fiscal year 2019, the notice stated.