STATEMENT: Sierra Club Joins Conservation Groups to Challenge Border Wall

San Diego, CA-- Today, advocates gathered in Southern California near a federal courthouse before a federal judge heard a legal challenge against the border wall. The U.S. District Court in Southern California listened to Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity and Animal Legal Defense Fund's arguments against the administration’s waivers of key health and environmental safeguards for wall construction.

In response, representatives of the Sierra Club’s Borderlands Campaign released the following statements:

“Waiving numerous environmental laws to build a border wall would put the Tijuana River Estuary, the California Coast and several state parks at risk and that’s just in this state alone. Failure to comply with several federal environmental regulations only reemphasizes this ill-thought attempt to construct a border wall through communities and ecosystems,” said Gloria Smith, Sierra Club Managing Attorney.

“These waivers greatly endanger communities in the borderlands: our safety, environment and health. This blatant disregard for effective and well-established safeguards harms hard-working families, threatened and endangered wildlife, and critical natural resources – all of which are essential to the region,” said Dan Millis, Sierra Club Borderlands Program Manager.

“Border walls and militarization of the borderlands are terrible cogs in the administration’s evil deportation machine-- one that jeopardizes families, young people, borderlands communities, wildlife, and our environment. Any construction of this monument to xenophobia and racism represents the cruel treatment of immigrants. It is unnecessary, expensive and will provide no national security benefits,” said Ruben Arizmendi, Chair of Sierra Club’s San Diego Chapter and attorney.