Green groups fight environmental law waivers in court: border wall will endanger people and wildlife
By Susan Thomas
(Activists rally outside the San Diego Courthouse to oppose Trump's border wall. Credit: Center for Biological Diversity)
Imagine losing the protections of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Antiquities Act. That is the reality for people living near the U.S./Mexico border. All these laws have been put on the chopping block by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as part of its plan to build Trump’s border wall.
Under the president’s direction, DHS has proposed to waive dozens of crucial environmental laws so that the border wall can be constructed. It would waive 37 laws in the San Diego area, 28 laws in Calexico (a small city where construction is imminent), and 23 laws in New Mexico. The Trump administration has already issued more waivers than the George W. Bush administration, whose Real ID Act of 2005 waived more than 30 laws protecting air, water, and wildlife near the border.
The Sierra Club has partnered with three other groups and the State of California to challenge the legality of these waivers. Our partners in the lawsuit include the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), the Defenders of Wildlife, and the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Attorneys argued our case in San Diego on February 9 before U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel.
After a protest rally outside the courthouse, attorneys for the Sierra Club and its partners argued that the waivers granted by the Bush administration have expired and should not be used to build an expanded wall.
More than 90 rare species are threatened by the wall construction. Wetlands, streams, and other wildlife habitats in coastal San Diego County will be jeopardized, as will the endangered Quino checkerspot butterfly, the coastal California gnatcatcher, and a rare species of Mexican shrub. An expanded border wall will impede the natural migration of wildlife and people that is essential to healthy diversity in the region.
In addition to the danger it poses to wildlife and public lands, a larger border barrier will promote a strategy of ongoing militarization, which impinges on human rights, civil liberties, native lands, and local businesses. “Not just laws that protect wildlife are being waived, but laws that protect the health of 15 million people who live in the borderlands are being overturned,” said Laiken Jordahl, a CBD staff member who attended the court hearing. “Many people of color who live in economically depressed border communities will lose their legal rights.”
While the wall and its accompanying roads, lighting, and infrastructure will do great harm to wildlife and border communities, they will not stop illegal drug and human smuggling, our attorneys argued.
On February 27, Judge Curiel ruled on the side of DHS to expedite wall construction. Gloria Smith, the Sierra Club’s managing attorney, said in response that “the laws that are being swept aside are not merely red tape. They are critical protections that were put in place to protect people, their communities, and the environment that we depend on.”
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Susan Thomas is Communications Chair of the Rincon Group and a Borderlands Team volunteer.