WASHINGTON — A federal judge is allowing the Department of Homeland Security to go ahead with plans to build a border wall through a levee system protecting a small Texas town on the border with Mexico, rejecting arguments by the town that the wall could lead to flooding.
The decision late Sunday marks a victory for the Trump administration as it races ahead with efforts to build a $46-billion wall along the U.S.-Mexico border from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.
The town of Presidio, with a population of about 3,200 people, argued the wall could cause flooding and that the administration isn’t following the law as it rushes forward with plans. The town’s development district sued this year to stop the construction.
But the judge said in his ruling Sunday that they were unlikely to succeed on the merits of the case.
“For the foregoing reasons, despite the understandable concerns expressed by the plaintiff regarding the harms it and the plaintiff’s residents might sustain by the potential construction of the Smart Wall, the Court is compelled to deny the plaintiff’s motion for a stay,” Judge Reggie B. Walton wrote.
Homeland Security has been charging forward with its wall-building plan, with senior administration officials saying a first layer will be done by next year. In its push, the secretary of Homeland Security has waived numerous regulations designed to protect the environment, wildlife, archaeological and Native American sites.
But the department has been running into opposition by landowners, environmental groups, Native American tribes and others who argue that the rapid construction endangers environmental and religious sites and a way of life along the border. Opponents also question the urgency to finish the wall when migrant crossings from Mexico are at extreme lows.
Lawyers for Presidio’s development district argued in a court hearing that the plans could compromise the levee system protecting the town from flash flooding and that the government flouted a key act that requires it to seek permission from the Army Corps of Engineers before building on or near the levees.
“We are very disappointed that the court will allow this potentially disastrous construction to continue, but we remain committed to protecting the Big Bend area and those who rely on the threatened levees,” the town’s development district said in a statement Monday.
Presidio is protected by a series of berms and levees built in the 1970s and 1980s along the Rio Grande and tributaries to combat flooding.
In court documents, Presidio’s development district said Customs and Border Protection plans to “replace the earthen slope of the existing levee with a concrete wall, with 30-foot steel bollard panels installed on top.” The district said it asked the agency for more details but was told they can’t be shared because of “national security.”
The government has argued there is no final plan for where the border wall will go or how it will be built and maintained it has the authority given by Congress to waive a vast swath of regulations to build the wall as it seeks to get the number of people crossing the border every day to zero.
In his ruling, the judge bolstered that argument, saying that it was clear “that Congress did not intend to limit the Secretary of DHS’s waiver authority.”
The government also is facing another lawsuit in Texas where an environmental group and a church preservation group have teamed up to oppose Homeland Security plans.
Santana writes for the Associated Press.
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