Environmental Groups Challenge Border Wall
By Greg Moran
The San Diego Union-Tribune
September 15, 2017
SAN DIEGO — A coalition of environmental groups on Thursday sued the Department of Homeland Security challenging the use of sweeping power under a federal law to ignore environmental laws in order to build walls, fences and roads on the border.
The lawsuit was filed in San Diego federal court by Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club and the Animal Legal Defense Fund. The suit targets a section of the REAL ID Act of 2005 that granted the Secretary of Homeland Security the power to waive complying with federal laws such as the Endangered Species Act and Clean Air Act in order to expedite border security building projects.
Since 2005 the law has been invoked six times to build fencing, roads and other barriers along the southwestern border, the lawsuit says.
This year the law was used twice, once in August to clear the way for construction of 15 miles of replacement fencing — and building prototypes for President Donald Trump’s hoped for new border wall made either of concrete, or other materials.
The law was also invoked earlier this week to build three miles of replacement fencing in Calexico, Calif., west of the port of entry there.
The lawsuit contends that the use of the law was limited to a certain time period after it was passed by Congress, and was not meant to be a perpetual tool the government can use to avoid laws. The law can’t therefore be applied to fast-track the San Diego and Calexico projects, the suit argues.
It also takes a broader aim, contending the law itself is unconstitutional because it allows a Cabinet secretary to override the laws passed by Congress, violating the separation of powers clause in the Constitution.
Similar arguments were made Sept. 6 by the Center for Biological Diversity in its separate lawsuit against the wall project.
A spokeswoman for DHS said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
While the lawsuit filed Thursday takes aim at the prototype walls, which are supposed to begin being built later this month on Otay Mesa, the lawsuit does not ask for an immediate injunction halting the work.
It could however delay or stop work on a larger wall, if it were ever to occur. Though Trump has championed the wall, support to appropriate billions in funding for it in Congress is lacking with Democrats solidly opposed and many Republicans cool to the idea.
Democratic leaders said Thursday that Trump, in a dinner meeting Wednesday, had agreed to a deal resolving the status of “Dreamers” and funds for enhanced border security — but no wall.
The White House soon contradicted that was the deal, and Trump himself said during a confusing day Thursday, “But very importantly, what we want: We have to have a wall.”
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