Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Monday that the dire conditions on the U.S.-Mexico border allows the administration the legal right to waive dozens of laws and regulations in order to rapidly build sections of border wall in areas of south Texas that are being overrun by illegal aliens.

Mayorkas said in an announcement on the U.S. Federal Register that the situation makes it “necessary to waive certain laws, regulations, and other legal requirements” in order to ensure the expeditious construction of “physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States.”

Mayorkas was forced to highlight the administration’s failures to secure the border and their open border policies in the announcement, noting that in August, nearly a quarter of a million illegal aliens were caught attempting to enter the U.S. — a number that does not include illegal aliens who evaded detection and escaped into the country.

The announcement named multiple areas within the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector that are areas of “high illegal entry” that the administration now has designated as “project areas.”

The administration said in the announcement that it was waiving 26 laws to start construction, including the National Environmental Policy Act; the Endangered Species Act; the Federal Water Pollution Control Act; the National Historic Preservation Act; the Migratory Bird Treaty Act; the Migratory Bird Conservation Act; the Clean Air Act; the Archeological Resources Protection Act; the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act; the Safe Drinking Water Act; the Noise Control Act; the Solid Waste Disposal Act; as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act; the Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act; the Antiquities Act; the Historic Sites, Buildings, and Antiquities Act; the Farmland Protection Policy Act; the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act; the National Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956; the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act; the National Trails System Act; the Administrative Procedure Act; the Eagle Protection Act; the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act; the American Indian Religious Freedom Act; and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act.

The news comes as there remain hundreds of miles of unprotected areas along the U.S.-Mexico border following former President Donald Trump’s time in office.

Under the administration of former President Trump, 450 miles of border wall was built, though the majority of that was replacing old barriers. 85 miles of new border wall — 52 miles of new primary wall and 33 miles of new secondary wall — was built in areas that had no preexisting border barriers, according to a press release that the Trump campaign posted on X from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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FACT CHECK: President Trump built over 450 MILES of new border wall. #CNNTownHall pic.twitter.com/KDPMFMWpbS

— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) May 11, 2023

Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-NJ) then-soon-to-be wife, Nadine Arslanian, reportedly hit and killed a man with her car in 2018 while driving in New Jersey — an event that would later lead to her acquisition of a 2019 Mercedes-Benz that prosecutors allege in a federal indictment was part of a bribery scheme.

The New York Times reported that the incident, which happened on a cold night in December 2018 while Nadine Menendez was driving through a poorly lit area, resulted in the near instant death of 49-year-old Richard Koop — who had just returned home by Uber after spending the evening out drinking at bars.

The revelation that a car accident led to Nadine Menendez seeking out a new vehicle was contained in the indictment as she allegedly reached out to one of the businessmen who was indicted about her need for a new car.

Senator Menendez came to an agreement with the businessmen, agreeing to “intervene with [a federal prosecutor] to influence the prosecution of the New Jersey Defendant in exchange for a car,” the indictment said.

The report said that there have been suspicions about whether Nadine Menendez was treated favorably by law enforcement, noting that by the time a special unit arrived on scene, local police already determined “that no criminality was suspected to be involved,” according to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s office.

However, there was no indication that any of the police officers knew that Nadine Menendez was with the senator, based on footage reviewed by the Times.

Nadine Menendez claimed that Koop was “in the middle of the street” and “he jumped on my windshield.” She was never drug tested and local officials later said that she was not at fault.

The indictment against Menendez and his wife was unsealed last month and accused the senator and his wife of accepting bribes from the three businessmen in exchange for actions that he took as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. According to the DOJ, the bribes were intended to protect the businessmen and to benefit Egypt. Menendez faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted of the charges, which include conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right.

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“Those bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value,” the indictment said. Federal authorities reportedly found gold bars and nearly $500,000 in cash stuffed throughout the senator’s home that they traced back to the businessmen Menendez allegedly worked with.