Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has signed waivers to speed construction of 36 miles of new border wall in Arizona and New Mexico. In a statement, the department said Noem was exercising her authority to waive environmental laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act.

Meanwhile, a Peruvian woman who was detained by U.S. Army soldiers and arrested by a Border Patrol agent in West Texas on May 12 has been acquitted of illegally entering a national defense area. Adely Vanessa De La Cruz-Alvarez already faces deportation, but could have received a prison term of up to 18 months for entering the narrow strip of land along the U.S.-Mexico border that President Trump recently transferred to the military.