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Sierra Club Against Trump's San Diego Border Wall Plans

Maya Springhawk Robnett
Stretch of borderlands near Yuma, Arizona

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued a waiver to expedite construction of a barrier on the international border near San Diego.  KAWC’s Maya Springhawk Robnett reports…

The waiver will allow the project—which will start at the Pacific Ocean and extend eastward for 15 miles—to circumvent a variety of environmental, natural resource, and land management laws.  The project is part of the effort to implement President Donald Trump’s executive order on border security, which calls for a physical wall along the entire Southern border of the country. 

Dan Millis of the Sierra Club’s Borderlands Program called the move un-American.

"When the federal government waives 33 laws in order to ostensibly enforce one or two immigration policies, it really flies in the face of what it means to be an American." - Dan Millis, Sierra Club Borderlands Program

The waiver eliminates DHS’s obligation to comply with various environmental laws.  However, the Department stated that it intends to continue to consult with other federal and state resource agencies to “ensure impacts to the environment, wildlife, and cultural and historic artifacts are analyzed and minimized, to the extent possible.”

More than 650 miles of fences, walls, and other barriers already exist along the U.S./Mexico border.

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