Thread: Wildlife coalition to file suit over waiving laws on fence

Friday, May 30, 2008


Wildlife coalition to file federal suit over waiving of environmental laws for border fence

12:00 AM CDT on Friday, May 30, 2008
By DAVID McLEMORE / The Dallas Morning News
dmclemore@dallasnews.com

A coalition of wildlife protection groups will file a federal lawsuit Monday in El Paso challenging the Department of Homeland Security's authority to waive state and federal laws to build a border security fence.

The lawsuit by the Frontera Audubon Society, the Friends of the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge and the Friends of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge claims that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff violated the Constitution's separation of powers when he waived 36 federal environmental laws to speed up construction of the fence.

Officials at Homeland Security could not be reached for comment.

This is the most recent in a series of legal challenges filed in South Texas to halt or slow construction of a border fence through private property and environmentally sensitive land along the Rio Grande.

In April, the Sierra Club and the Friends of Wildlife asked the Supreme Court to intercede in a lawsuit challenging the waiver authority that was thrown out by a federal court in Washington. The appeal is pending.

"Our suit is broader, with a focus on the entire Lower Rio Grande Valley National wildlife refuge system," said Wayne Bartholomew, executive director of the Frontera Audubon Society in Weslaco.

Homeland Security maps show that the border wall would cut a swath through the hundreds of miles of the wildlife refuge system, a chain of individual tracts of native habitat linked by the river that create living space for endangered species such as the ocelot and jaguarondi. It is also a resting and nesting place for a wide variety of migratory birds.

"It's taken 30 years, $80 million and backbreaking effort to create an 80,000-acre wildlife corridor along the last 250 miles of the Rio Grande. To put a fence or wall through that is insanity," said Keith Hackland, president of the Friends of Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge.

The wildlife coalition's lawsuit adds to a growing set of legal challenges against the border fence.

In mid-May, a group of Texas border elected officials and business leaders, led by Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, head of the Texas Border Coalition, filed suit, claiming that Homeland Security had failed to follow federal land acquisition rules.

In addition to the Sierra Club legal action, property owners along the river have filed lawsuits claiming Mr. Chertoff was illegally trying to acquire their land .







http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... fbc48.html

Apparently adding several million newcomers into the world's most consuming society doesn't register with these environmentalists....

What is the phrase about 'not being able to see the forest through the trees'?

Hey Sierra Club - who is David Gelbaum anyway?

To put a fence or wall through that is insanity

I think letting millions of third worlders here is INSANITY!

These environmentalists are a pain in the a$$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have they not seen the millions of pounds of trash illegals leave behind???????

The animals will adapt!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[quote]"It's taken 30 years, $80 million and backbreaking effort to create an 80,000-acre wildlife corridor along the last 250 miles of the Rio Grande. To put a fence or wall through that is insanity," said Keith Hackland, president of the Friends of Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge[quote]

The "Insanity" is your failure to support your country and from your own admittance take sides with the Illegals that trash and damage every arce they put foot on

dang it , me mouse seems to be messing up the quote feature