Border wall faces first lawsuit

[struggle4progress]

Rafael Carranza , The Republic | azcentral.com
Published 3:51 p.m. MT April 12, 2017 | Updated 3 hours ago

... The Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson-based conservation group, and U.S. Congressman Raul Grijalva, who represents a broad swath of the Arizona border, filed the suit on Wednesday in a Tucson federal court targeting the environmental and fiscal impact of building a nearly 2,000-mile border wall.

It lists U.S. Department of Homeland Secretary John Kelly and Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan as defendants.

The 42-page document alleges the federal government's border security enforcement plan fails to comply with the National Environment Policy Act, and asks the agencies to conduct an environmental impact study that is already a decade overdue, just as the bidding process to choose designs for border wall prototypes is underway.

A 2001 preliminary study was conducted, and DHS was to conduct a more comprehensive study five years later, but it hasn't been done ...

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/border-issues/2017/04/12/donald-trumps-us-mexico-border-wall-faces-first-lawsuit/100379220/

[marybourg]

1. Good! nt

[UTUSN]

2. K&r

[Gothmog]

3. There will be more lawsuits

[panader0]

4. The rare jaguars in So Az would be affected.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-science/2017/03/02/rare-jaguar-spotted-mountains-arizona/98641298/

[CajunBlazer]

5. Unfortunately Congress has already given Trump a waiver

(last paragraphs of the article)

Congress authorized DHS in 2005 to waive environmental laws for the construction of physical barriers along the border. Since then, they have completed about 550 miles of fencing without analyzing the environmental impact.

It's widely expected the Trump administration will continue to use these waivers to move forward with plans to build a wall.

(Apparently some folks on DU don't bother reading the actual articles.)