"Late last week, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem gave physical border wall construction in the Big Bend the green light. In the interest of speeding things up, the posting in the Federal Register also waives 28 laws aimed at protecting environmental and cultural resources, including the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. 

Secretary Noem explains in the posting that there is “an acute and immediate need to construct additional physical barriers and roads” along the U.S.-Mexico border. She describes the Big Bend as an “area of high illegal entry,” citing 89,000 illegal entry arrests within a four-year period in an area that stretches from Sierra Blanca to Sanderson. “Since the President took office, DHS has delivered the most secure border in history,” she boasted. “More can and must be done, however.”  READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE