A pair of conservation groups are suing the Trump administration over a stretch of Arizona borderland that’s slated to see wall construction in the next two months.
The lawsuit was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Conservation CATalyst. It alleges Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem illegally waived a host of laws to fast-track wall construction in the San Rafael Valley.
“We are arguing that the secretary, who is a totally unelected executive agent, is using legislative power to pick and choose which laws she wants to disregard with respect to border wall construction,” said Jean Su, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. “We are suing this particular waiver because it actually implicates the last remaining open corridor for jaguars in Arizona going to Mexico.”
As AZPM reports, an analysis from the Center for Biological Diversity says the San Rafael Valley has been a top place in the U.S. for jaguar sightings in the last 100 years.
Environmentalists have been fighting to protect the area from construction projects over the past several years, including a wall of shipping containers built by the state of Arizona across a strip of public land.
Noem announced upcoming construction on more than 25 miles of the valley in June and used a law from the 1990s to waive environmental protection laws.
The North Dakota-based construction firm Fisher Sand and Gravel was awarded a $309 million contract to build the 30-foot structure shortly after.
