US-Mexico Border Disregarding Environmental Laws

I hope someone tears down The Wall, US border, separating Mexico from the US, looking east, along Highway 2, Sonora Desert, Mexican side” by Wonderlane licensed under CC BY 2.0

Source: NPR

The expansion of the US-Mexico border has raised concerns for many, but continuous projects on the fence have unsettled environmental activists.

The Department of Homeland Security announced it will ignore some environmental laws and regulations in order to “ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads” near the San Diego border.

While previous efforts to secure the area allowed the Customs and Border Patrol to seize 1,300 of cocaine in 2016, the environmental activist organization Center for Biological Diversity has sued the federal government.

“The proposed construction of the replacement border wall in San Diego, like many areas along the border lands, has a high concentration of endangered species,” said the organization’s lawyer Brian Segee.

“There are a lot of impacts that can occur to the environment– especially in the absence of prior environmental studies,” Segee said of the proposed waiver.

Read full story at: NPR

Environment, News
Environment, News