Despite President Biden’s statement today regarding the use of waiver authority to build more border wall, the Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) maintains its position that border communities have the human right to equal protection under the law.Yesterday, the Biden administration announced that it will waive 26 federal public health, environmental and cultural preservation laws to expedite border wall construction in Starr County, Texas. The use of this waiver authority to ignore federal, state, environmental and tribal laws to enable border wall construction has created devastating harm.
President Biden is now in the notorious category of administrations that have denied borderlands and border communities the protection of dozens of bedrock laws. Before yesterday, this waiver authority had been invoked 30 times – 25 times under the Trump administration, and 5 times under the George W. Bush administration.
This action breaks once again Biden’s campaign promise to not build ‘another mile of wall’. President Biden has violated his promise with wall construction projects from Friendship Park in San Diego, California to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.
It’s time to rethink how we govern our borders and move towards rights-respecting policies that uphold human rights and dignity for all people who live, work and travel through our borders. The SBCC and many other border organizationscondemn this move to build more deadly walls – and call on President Biden to rescind existing waivers, urge Congress to pass legislation to strike this unprecedented power granted to the Secretary of Homeland Security, rescind all previously appropriated border wall funding, and provide robust resources to address the harms created by the border wall.
The Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) brings together organizations from San Diego, California to Brownsville, Texas, to ensure that border enforcement policies and practices are accountable and fair, respect human dignity and human rights, and prevent the loss of life in the region.
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