DHS will bypass environmental regulations when building border wall in San Diego

The border wall in Tijuana.
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

In order to quickly get a wall up along the border between the United States and Mexico, the Department of Homeland Security has permission to bypass environmental regulations in the San Diego area, the agency said Tuesday.

The agency issued a waiver that authorizes it to bypass "a variety of environmental, natural resource, and land management laws," the DHS said. The focus will be on a 15-mile stretch of wall that starts at the Pacific Ocean, with the DHS saying it had to issue the waiver because of the need to "immediately plan, design, and construct a physical wall along the southern border." Despite the waiver, the DHS said it "remains committed to environmental stewardship with respect to these projects."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.