Trump’s offensive border wall is apparently above environmental laws, too

The list of reasons why President Trump’s infamous border wall is a terrible idea just keeps getting longer. This week federal officials waived nearly 30 environmental laws in Texas to make way for Trump’s outlandish campaign promise. The latest waivers would allow the wall to pass through a National Butterfly Center and near the sensitive Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in the Rio Grande Valley, a critical area for the region’s migrating birds, butterflies, and endangered species. The administration has already issued waivers of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species acts for the contentious project (that has yet to receive funding). The latest move, which environmentalists are calling “catastrophic,” would prevent species from traveling across the border to mate and maintain genetic diversity. As Laiken Jordahl, a campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity warns, “If we put this wall up, any chances of their recovery we can kiss goodbye.”