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A decision to waive dozens of environmental and public health laws in order to expedite construction of the border wall in the Rio Grande Valley has a national environmental organization concerned about its potential impact on the local ecosystem.

The Department of Homeland Security announced Monday that at least 31 laws will have to be waived so that construction can be streamlined, a move that will see the border wall intersecting with the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge tracts in Starr County.

In the government’s notice that the laws will be waived, DHS described the Border Patrol Rio Grande Valley Sector as “an area of high illegal entry.”

That document said that from fiscal year 2021 through July 2025, Border Patrol apprehended 1,523,672 people who were in the country illegally.

“In that same time period, Border Patrol seized over 166,198 pounds of marijuana, over 7,068 pounds of cocaine, over 5,885 pounds of methamphetamine, over 87 pounds of heroin, and over 118 pounds of fentanyl,” the notice stated.

Typically, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl are intercepted at international bridges operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Marijuana is frequently crossed over the Rio Grande in rural areas where border wall already does exist, through gaps in the border wall and in other rural areas without stretches of border wall.

According to a news release from the Center for Biological Diversity, the waivers will allow the wall to go through 13 refuge tracts — dividing wildlife corridors, as well as habitats and communities that are relied upon by local endangered species.

“Trump is inventing a fake emergency to bulldoze and wall off some of the best remaining habitat for wildlife in South Texas,” Laiken Jordahl, Southwest Conservation Advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in the news release.

“Border crossings have plunged more than 90% over the last year but the administration is hell-bent on torching our nation’s most important environmental protections to build more destructive walls,” he continued. “This isn’t border security, it’s a reckless attack on South Texas’ culture, communities and irreplaceable wildlife.”

According to the news release, 6,072 people were apprehended by Border Patrol throughout the nation in June. That number represents a decline of more than 90% from June 2024 when there were a reported 87,606 apprehensions.

The release cited a Feb. 14 report from the Associated Press that shows that while there were approximately 1,500 apprehensions per day in the Rio Grande Valley in December 2023, that number fell to a daily average of 50 apprehensions per day at the time that the story was published.

The Center for Biological Diversity is concerned with how the new wall segments will affect the endangered species in the area, including ocelots and aplomado falcons, as well as hundreds of migratory birds and local residents such as green jays, Altamira orioles and plain chachalacas.

Endangered plants are also at risk, according to the Center. Plants such as the Zapata bladderpod, Walker’s manioc and Texas ayenia could be impacted by the proposed walls.

“There’s a special cruelty in walling off national wildlife refuges that were created for conservation,” Jordahl said in the release. “These lands exist to protect endangered species and connect fragmented habitat, not to be bulldozed for Trump’s wall.”

The post Proposal calls for border wall cutting through Valley wildlife refuges appeared first on MyRGV.com.