A federal magistrate is allowing a challenge from conservationists against a portion of border wall to continue.
Magistrate Judge James Marner acknowledged he had granted an earlier request by attorneys for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to put off the challenge by the Center for Biological Diversity. He said at the time that he had to respect her arguments that lawyers from the Department of Justice, which is representing Noem, are legally prohibited from working while they are not being paid.
But Marner said none of that apparently has halted construction along a 27-mile stretch through the grasslands of the San Rafael Valley. And he specifically cited a declaration of Russell McSpadden, southwest conservation advocate for the organization that sued, citing work in a specific "ecologically sensitive'' area where the wall is going up.
The magistrate also said it is likely that federal lawyers already have done much of the legal work to respond to the lawsuit.
Russ McSpadden, with the Center for Biological Diversity, the organization suing to stop the construction, says it would impede jaguar habitat
"This is really an encouraging step forward. What it means is Department of Homeland Security can't use the shutdown as a pretext to continue walling off one of the last, most vital wildlife corridors in the Sky Islands while our case sits idle," McSpadden said.
The lawsuit filed in July centers around a provision in the 1996 Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act which authorizes Homeland Security to construct barriers and roads along the border.
But attorneys for the Department of Justice say it also allows Noem to "waive any legal requirements (that) such secretary, in the secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads.''
The lawsuit does not allege Noem herself broke the law. Instead, it contends that Congress acted illegally when in 2005 it amended the 1996 law, delegating that authority to waive laws to the secretary.
Lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security have a week to file legal arguments.
-
The Interior Department announced roughly 750 acres of public land along the California border would be transferred to the Navy to form a military zone. It's the latest so-called National Defense Area, or NDA, established since April. -
Mexico has largely been able to contain the deadly parasite in the southern part of the country. -
The U.S. Department of Transportation has flagged commercial driver’s license training providers for not meeting the Trump administration’s readiness standards. -
Researchers at University of Arizona have confirmed a new jaguar in southern Arizona. This is the fifth big cat over the last 15 years to be spotted in the area. -
No More Deaths’ aid camp is stationed in the middle of the Sonoran Desert, a few miles from the border in southern Arizona. The group said that site was raided by Border Patrol agents the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
