The nation's top homeland security official says she has the right to build new sections of border wall — even though it could wipe out the jaguar in Arizona.
A lawyer for DHS head Kristi Noem says the 1996 Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act authorizes her agency to construct physical barriers and roads along the border.
Her plans include 27 miles of 30-foot-high barriers to replace existing vehicle barriers, which don’t block wildlife movement. Two environmental groups that are suing over Noem’s plans call that stretch of border “a critical lifeline” connecting jaguars to breeding populations in Sonora.
They argue the wall would be the death knell for jaguars in the U.S. and want the judge to declare that Congress acted illegally in giving Noem total discretion to build without guidance or limits.
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In a post, the State Department called Mexico’s progress on border security “unacceptable.” Meanwhile, Mexico’s president is calling on the United States to do more to stop the flow of firearms into her country. -
Arizona is considering pumping water from a desalination plant on the Gulf of California to boost its water supply, but would need buy-in from Mexico. -
Arizona U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton is one of the congressional representatives who introduced the bill after threats from President Donald Trump. -
The Trump administration says it’s deported more than 600,000 people in the first year of its aggressive deportation campaign. And, a whole lot of them have gone to Mexico. -
Nearly a year after launching the initiative to publicize arrests and drug busts in Mexican states near the border with the United States, authorities have also seized more than 7,000 firearms and 600 kilograms of fentanyl.
