The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday waived more than two dozen protections — including environmental, pollution and preservation acts — in order to quickly erect better barriers along a section of California's southern border.
Acting DHS secretary Elaine Duke issued the waivers for Calexico, California, to replace the "existing 14-foot, landing mat-style fencing . . . with an 18 to 25-foot barrier that employs a more operationally effective design that is intended to meet Border Patrol's operational requirements," she wrote in the filing.
The new fencing will span a 3-mile area, Duke wrote.
"The El Centro Sector remains an area of high illegal entry for which there is an immediate need to construct border barriers and roads," Duke wrote.
Duke wrote that in that area in 2016 alone, DHS apprehended more than 19,000 illegals and seized 2,900 pounds of marijuana.
To combat that with immediate alterations, Duke waived nearly 30 protections, including:
- National Environmental Policy Act.
- National Historic Preservation Act.
- Clean Water and Clean Air acts.
- Noise Control Act.
- Antiquities Act.
"Replacing the existing primary fence with a new, more operationally effective design and improving the existing patrol road will improve Border Patrol's operational efficiency and, in turn, further deter and prevent illegal crossings," Duke wrote.
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