Earthjustice Action Slams New Border Wall Actions from the Trump Administration

WASHINGTON, DC—Today, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced new border wall waivers for wall construction across the entire the U.S.-Mexico border. The announcement from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem unilaterally waives virtually all laws governing contracting and procurement, allowing DHS to quickly award construction contracts without following standard procurement processes meant to ensure transparency and accountability. DHS has never before waived laws for every sector of the border at once. Previous waivers have always applied to specific areas with proposed or ongoing projects. 

This follows last week’s announcement of $4.5 billion in new wall construction with funding from President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That legislation included $46.5 billion to fund border wall construction.  

After the announcement, Earthjustice Action Associate Legislative Representative Cameron Walkup issued the following statement:  

“Trump’s border wall waivers will make a harmful project worse and are emblematic of this administration’s blatant corruption and disregard for the law. By waiving dozens of laws that ensure good governance, transparency, and accountability, the administration is moving to rubber-stamp border wall construction anywhere along the U.S.-Mexico Border and opening the door to more shady backroom deals and misuse of taxpayer dollars. Coupled with numerous previous waivers allowing the federal government to ignore a wide swath of environmental and cultural preservation laws for border wall construction, the results will be disastrous for border communities and ecosystems. Congress must act to revoke this easily abused waiver authority, rescind existing waivers, and conduct stringent oversight of this obvious boondoggle.”