The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol says it could use a 2005 anti-terrorism law — the Real ID Act — to all President Trump’s border wall to be built through a national wildlife refuge in Texas, without having to conduct an environmental impact studies. The studies are usually mandated for any new construction on federal lands under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Trump’s 2018 budget proposal calls for building a 32-mile wall through the 2,000-acre Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge on Texas’ southern tip. The refuge is “home to 400 species of birds as well as a dwindling population of federally protected ocelots. Only about 50 ocelots remain in the United States, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service,” says Reuters.
The Real ID Act also lets CBP ignore the Endangered Species Act, which would otherwise make it impossible to build the wall through the refuge because of the ocelots.