WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Supreme Court has turned down a plea by environmental groups to rein in the Bush administration’s power to waive laws and regulations to speed construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border.
Homeland Security Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has used authority given to him by Congress in 2005 to ignore environmental and other laws and regulations to move forward with hundreds of miles of fencing in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.
The case rejected by the court Monday involved a two-mile section of fence in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area near Naco, Ariz. The section has since been built.