Waivers to allow new border gates

HOUSTON — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that it will waive environmental laws so it can build gates between sections of border barriers in south Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.

The waiver posted online lists 11 locations where the government plans to install gates in existing fencing. The Homeland Security Department has in recent months issued similar waivers of environmental laws for projects elsewhere on the southwest border.

In the waiver, department Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen writes that there is “an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads” along the border. Nielsen waived regulations under the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and about two dozen other laws.

The U.S. government already has around 700 miles of fencing along the southwest border. In far south Texas, segments of fencing stop and start along the levee built next to the Rio Grande, the river separating the U.S. and Mexico. Many parts of the fencing are built a significant distance from the river, in some cases bisecting private property.

The proposed gates would seal some of those gaps in Cameron County. U.S. Customs and Border Protection typically grants affected residents access to the gates so they can get to the other side of their land.

Congress earlier this year approved $1.6 billion for new border wall spending.