OAKLAND, CA — Under a legal settlement filed in federal court today, the Sierra Club and Southern Border Communities Coalition, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Sierra Club, ACLU of Texas, and ACLU of Northern California, have successfully settled two long-running lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s illegal transfer of military construction and Treasury Department forfeiture funds to build sections of the U.S.-Mexico border wall that Congress explicitly refused to fund.
Washington, D.C. - This week, images were released of Customs and Border Patrol agents physically abusing Haitian families on the banks of the Rio Grande at the Southern border. Currently, there are more than 15,000 migrants being held for processing in a makeshift camp under the Del Rio International Bridge, where they are being forced to endure sweltering heat with no access to clean, running water. Many of these migrants, who are fleeing political and economic crises and the cumulative impacts of natural disasters, are being deported or expelled from the US without being allowed to claim asylum. Seeking asylum is a legal right that is recognized in both international and US federal law.
Update in Sierra Club vs. Trump case.
Arizona/ California/ New Mexico/ Texas— Yesterday, President Biden signed an executive order to rescind Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration that was used to rush the imposition of border walls with money from the military’s budget.
Hoy, menos de una semana tras que sus seguidores asaltaran el Congreso en un golpe fallido, Donald Trump visitará el muro fronterizo en el Valle del Río Grande, en Texas.
McAllen, Texas— Today, less than a week after his supporters stormed the Capitol in a failed coup, Donald Trump will make a stop in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley to visit the border wall.
Congress has included $1.375 billion in funding for border wall construction in this year's appropriations package. This request comes just days before President-elect Biden takes office. Biden has publicly mentioned several times his administration will not build another mile of border wall. Border groups are pushing back and calling on Congress to deny all funding for future wall construction, citing harm to communities, landscapes and wildlife. Read the coalition of organizations’ opposition of the funding and call for restoration and mitigation of the borderlands.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Supreme Court today stated it will hear arguments in a challenge to the Trump administration’s diversion of $2.5 billion from military pay and pension funds for border wall construction that Congress explicitly denied. The order came in Sierra Club v. Trump, a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition.
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last night ruled that President Trump’s use of emergency powers to divert $3.6 billion in military construction funds for the border wall is unlawful. The ruling came in a lawsuit, Sierra Club v. Trump, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Sierra Club and Southern Border Communities Coalition challenging President Trump’s abuse of emergency powers to build a border wall using funds Congress explicitly denied.
WASHINGTON, DC— Today, the Sierra Club, American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Border Communities Coalition asked the Supreme Court to halt construction of President Trump’s border wall. In the motion, the groups urge the court to lift an earlier stay that allowed the Trump administration to divert $2.5 billion from military pay and pension funds for border wall construction that Congress explicitly denied.
Washington, DC— Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office released a report revealing major flaws in the Trump administration’s border wall projects. The report declares that the administration did not use “sound methodology” when identifying areas to be walled, failed to consider the exceedingly high cost to taxpayers, and that the administration has not proven the effectiveness of the barriers.