The Department of Homeland Security announced on Tuesday that Secretary Kristi Noem has waived the protections of the Endangered Species Act and other federal statutes to “ensure the expeditious construction” of the border wall through the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Texas.

Funds were appropriated for border wall construction in the Rio Grande Valley during the first Trump administration. Now, the administration is eyeing this biodiverse area in Starr County for its next stage of border fortification.

By the time the refuge was established in 1979, the Rio Grande Valley had already lost most of its native habitat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pieced together property to protect biodiversity and create a wildlife corridor along the Rio Grande.

Endangered oce

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