DHS Issues Environmental Waiver To Expedite New Border Wall System In Texas

WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a waiver, which will ensure expeditious construction of approximately 69 miles of new border wall system in locations where no barriers currently exist within the U.S. Border Patrol’s Laredo Sector in Webb and Zapata Counties, Texas.

The waiver was published in the Federal Register on May 15, 2020. These projects are funded by U.S. Custom and Border Protection’s (CBP) Fiscal Year 2020 Appropriations.

The Laredo Sector is an area of high illegal activity, with over 21,000 illegal alien apprehensions and over 19,000 pounds of drugs seized this FY to date. The majority of its activity is occurring in areas where the Laredo Sector lacks infrastructure, access and mobility, and technology.

These projects will improve the Laredo Sector’s ability to impede and deny illegal border crossings and the drug and human smuggling activities of transnational criminal organizations.

DHS/CBP remains committed to protection of the nation’s important natural and cultural resources.

DHS/CBP has been and will continue coordinating and consulting with other federal, state, and local resource agencies and other interested stakeholders to ensure that potential impacts on the environment, wildlife, and cultural and historic resources are analyzed and minimized, to the greatest extent possible.

CBP continues to implement President Trump’s Executive Order 13767 – also known as Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements – taking steps to expeditiously plan, design, and construct a physical wall using appropriate materials and technology to most effectively achieve operational control of the southern border.