One could reasonably argue President Donald Trump’s promise to build a well-secured wall along the U.S.-Mexico border was the defining issue of his campaign, and for those who voted for Trump, it seemed as though his victory in November all but guaranteed the wall’s completion.
However, liberals, led by one notorious Democrat in Congress, are working feverishly to ensure the Trump administration never fulfills its promise to voters—and the plan just might work.
The Associated Press reported on Wednesday U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) has joined a lawsuit meant to stop the construction of the promised border wall initially brought by the Center for Biological Diversity in U.S. District Court. Grijalva and CBD argue a comprehensive environmental impact study must be conducted before construction of the border barrier can begin.
According to the lawsuit, “ requires that an environmental impact statement (‘EIS’) ‘shall’ be supplemented when the ‘agency makes substantial changes in the proposed action that are relevant to environmental concerns’ or ‘here are significant new circumstances or information relevant to environmental concerns and bearing on the proposed action or its impacts.’ … Defendants have not updated their programmatic environmental analysis for the southern border enforcement program since late 2001, more than 15 years ago, despite the clear presence of the regulatory factors compelling the preparation of supplemental environmental analysis.”
The lawsuit also alleges, “The Trump administration’s rapid mobilization to undertake border wall construction itself would have environmental impacts far larger in scope, extent, and intensity than considered in the previous programmatic environmental analysis.”
If the Trump administration is ordered to conduct an environmental impact study prior to beginning construction, it’s possible the study will take years to complete, putting the entire project in jeopardy.
“It will take a significant amount of time to thoroughly analyze , and that’s the point,” said Randy Serraglio, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, according to AP’s report.
“What we learned about the border wall in the past 10 years is that it’s hugely expensive, it doesn’t work, and it does a tremendous amount of damage,” Serraglio said. “The people in the United States have the right to know what the damage is going to be, what it’s going to cost, and whether it’s going to be effective. Those are questions the Trump administration is not interested in answering.”
Justin Haskins
