In a reversal, Biden approves border wall

The administration of US President Joe Biden is waiving 26 federal laws to fast-track border wall construction in South Texas, marking the administration's first use of a sweeping executive power often used during Donald Trump's presidency and a major reversal from the administration's previous stance that no more border walls would be constructed.

The Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, posted the announcement on the US Federal Register on Wednesday with few details outlining the construction in Starr County, which is part of a busy Border Patrol sector seeing "high illegal entry".

The agency said there have been more than 245,000 illegal entries in the Rio Grande Valley Sector so far this year.

The wall project contradicts Biden's previous promise to end such construction.

"Building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution," he said in a proclamation to stop the building on Jan 20, 2021.

In response to the move, Trump accused Biden of breaking "every environmental law in the book to prove that I was right" in a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday morning.

"As I have stated often, over thousands of years, there are only two things that have consistently worked, wheels, and walls!" Trump wrote.

There was no response from the White House.

The announcement of the wall comes as the Biden administration is getting growing calls for more action from liberal states and cities that have been overwhelmed by the escalating numbers, including ways to limit illegal immigrants from entering the United States.

The administration said Congress needs to provide more funding and pass legislation to fix the "broken" system with which it says it is working.

The announcement marks the first time the Biden administration has used the REAL ID Act waiver authority.

The Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and Endangered Species Act were some of the federal laws waived by the DHS to make way for construction.

The waivers avoid time-consuming reviews and lawsuits challenging violations of environmental laws.

Environmental advocates said wall structures will run through public lands, habitats of endangered plants and species like the ocelot, a spotted wild cat.

"A plan to build a wall through will bulldoze an impermeable barrier straight through the heart of that habitat," Laiken Jordahl, a southwest conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, said on Wednesday.

Agencies contributed to this story.