Three
advocacy groups sued the federal government Thursday to block construction of a
border wall with Mexico, alleging that the Trump administration
overstepped its authority by waiving environmental reviews and other laws.
The Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and
Animal Legal Defense Fund seek to prevent construction of wall prototypes in
San Diego and halt plans for replacement barriers in San Diego and Calexico.
The complaint largely mirrors a lawsuit filed
by another advocacy group, the Center for Biological Diversity, but the three
organizations each say they have hundreds of thousands of members, bringing
more attention and resources to a legal fight over one of President Trump’s key
campaign pledges.
The government has waived reviews seven times
under a 2005 law to speed construction of border barriers, including twice
under Trump. The law allows the government to waive dozens of laws, including
the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, which
requires extensive reviews of environmental impacts.
The lawsuit contends the waiver authority
expired in 2008, when the government met congressional requirements for
additional border barriers.
“An impenetrable border wall would divide
wildlife and their habitat as well as families and communities across the
border,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president of Defenders of Wildlife. “It
would bisect and isolate important Southwestern landscapes, pushing borderland
wildlife like peninsular bighorn sheep, jaguars and ocelots to the brink of
extinction.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection doesn’t
comment on pending litigation, said spokesman Carlos Diaz.
The government recently awarded eight
contracts to build prototypes of what Trump has called a “big, beautiful wall,”
each one up to 30 feet high. It plans to start construction this fall.
Last month, the administration issued a waiver
of environmental reviews on a 15-mile stretch of border in San Diego, which
encompasses the construction site for the prototypes and areas targeted for
replacement fencing on one of the most fortified areas on the 1,954-mile
border. On Tuesday, it issued a waiver extending three miles west from a
downtown border crossing in Calexico, a desert city of 40,000 people.
FROM THE DESK OF ANIMAL RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA
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