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 coun

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