The Trump administration gave Customs and Border Protection the green light to move forward with border wall projects across Arizona and New Mexico.
The Department of Homeland Security instructed CBP to ignore environmental regulations and immediately begin building 36 miles of barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border, CBP announced Thursday.
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DHS Secretary Kristi Noem issued a waiver, including against the National Environmental Policy Act, for the federal government to begin construction of 18- to 30-foot slatted walls and roads without having to wait for normal administrative approvals.
The largest part of the 36-mile project, 24 miles called the Tucson Sonoita Project, will go up in the Nogales, Arizona, region, and another two miles of the project will be constructed in the Tucson region of the border.
In western Arizona’s Yuma region, wall projects, ranging from 40 to 240 feet in length, will fill in seven gaps in the Barry M. Goldwater Range.
Further east in New Mexico, 8.3 miles of wall will go up as part of the Santa Teresa Wall Project, the Wall Project Anapra, and near an unspecified port of entry.
The projects have been funded through unused money that Congress appropriated in fiscal 2020 and 2021.
According to the DHS, Noem’s environmental waiver allows the federal government to construct barriers quickly where they are needed rather than wait for studies to ensure the land will not be negatively affected.
“Projects executed under a waiver are critical steps to secure the southern border and reinforce our commitment to border security,” the DHS said in a press release.
Noem cited her authority under Section 102 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to waive the regulations.
The waiver is Noem’s second since she announced plans in April to build 2.5 miles of barrier in southwestern and southcentral California. It followed a precedent set during the first Trump administration.
Trump campaigned in 2016 to build a “beautiful” wall between the United States and Mexico. When he took office in January 2017, the barrier between the 1,954-mile border covered approximately one-third of that space.
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Trump obtained funding through Congress and redirected funds from the Defense and Treasury departments to the DHS. More than 700 miles of border wall were funded, but roughly 450 miles were completed by the time Trump left office.
Former President Joe Biden canceled the remaining wall projects in early 2021, but some leftover funds are still available to carry out unfinished projects, such as this one.
