Trump administration cites ‘environmental crisis’ to spur building border wall construction

Forthcoming border fence construction on federally protected wilderness land is being touted by the Interior Department as a way to prevent fires and eliminate trash left behind by migrants, but it will also help keep President Trump from failing to fulfill a campaign promise: building the wall.

Trump administration officials have cited an “environmental crisis” at the border to help justify using their authority, under the president’s declaration of a national emergency, to transfer 560 acres of some of the country’s most protected public lands to the Pentagon, which plans to build nearly 70 miles worth of barriers.