Regulations Slowing Wall Construction Are Getting the Trump Treatment
What is a higher priority: the security of the United States, or “noise pollution” that might upset a few birds?
That’s the question the federal government is now facing, but the left seems to have sided with the birds.
A handful of obscure environmental regulations are being used by liberal groups to delay the planned wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and the Trump administration is trying to put a stop to the nonsense.
“The Secretary of Homeland Security has determined, pursuant to law, that it is necessary to waive certain laws, regulations and other legal requirements in order to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads in the vicinity of the international land border of the United States,” the government stated on Monday.
According to the Washington Examiner, a laundry list of environmental rules are all getting in the way of proposed wall construction in New Mexico, not far from El Paso, Texas.
These include: The National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Clean Air Act, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Noise Control Act.
Don’t worry, there won’t be a quiz. Suffice it to say that if an obscure regulation exists, liberal groups are trying to use it in a lawsuit to block the wall.
“The Center for Biological Diversity, the first group to sue the Trump administration over the wall last year, said Monday that it is considering a new lawsuit to address this latest waiver,” reported the Examiner.
“The group argued that the wall violates the endangered species law by cutting off species’ migratory patterns and ignoring protected habitat,” continued that outlet.
But the Trump administration is pushing back, and is citing national security as justification for waivers to the myriad of environmental red tape.
“The United States Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector is an area of high illegal entry,” a notice from the Department of Homeland Security made clear. “The El Paso Sector therefore remains an area of high illegal entry for which there is an immediate need to construct border barriers and roads.”
Predictably, groups like the Center for Biological Diversity are dramatically downplaying the negative impacts of illegal immigration and smuggling, while wringing their hands over largely desert land.
“Beyond jeopardizing wildlife, endangered species and public lands, the U.S.-Mexico border wall is part of a larger strategy of ongoing border militarization that damages human rights, civil liberties, native lands, local businesses and international relations,” that group complained.
Apparently the human rights of people brutalized by cross-border crime are not very important, but making sure that aliens and human smugglers can enter the United States unimpeded is completely fine.
There’s a place for general environmental regulations, but using them to disrupt border enforcement and endanger national security is ludicrous. The government’s job is to serve the people, not endanger human lives to protect a stray pronghorn antelope.
The reality is that President Trump is doing exactly what he promised when he was elected: taking border security seriously. That’s why he won, but his opponents now seem shocked that he’s actually doing what he pledged all along.
Press “Share on Facebook” if you’ve had enough of the left trying to block border enforcement!
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