Ķųŗģ±¬ĮĻ, Sierra Club, and Border Communities Ask Court to Block Construction of Trumpās Border Wall
NEW YORK ā The Ķųŗģ±¬ĮĻ, Sierra Club, Ķųŗģ±¬ĮĻ of Texas, and Ķųŗģ±¬ĮĻ of Northern California filed a motion today to immediately stop the illegal construction of President Trumpās border wall. The plaintiffs in the case, the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition are asking the court to declare that Trumpās declaration of a national emergency is unconstitutional and unlawful.
āWe must immediately put a stop to this process to prevent the irreparable harm a southern wall would inflict on border communities and our nation,ā said Dror Ladin, Ķųŗģ±¬ĮĻ staff attorney. āWeāre going to court to ensure that President Trumpās desperate bid to fund his border wall with a bogus national emergency and taxpayer money fails.ā
The motion for a preliminary injunction is asking the court to block Trumpās attempt to fund the wall by diverting emergency military construction funds and raiding military pension and pay accounts. The Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition have members who live in, protect, and treasure the lands that the Trump administration has targeted for the construction.
āThe walls and hyper-militarization that President Trump continues to demand by threatening a border shutdown will only harm the region, and the nation as a whole,ā said Vicki B. Gaubeca, director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition. āThe lengths that Trump is willing to go to prop up his sham national emergency are tearing apart the binational and multi-cultural fabric of our region. With this lawsuit, weāre sending the message that the Trump administration cannot abuse our nationās democratic institutions for its own political gain.ā
Todayās motion is the latest development in the lawsuit filed by the Ķųŗģ±¬ĮĻ and the Sierra Club in February challenging President Trumpās attempt to circumvent Congressā rejection of his border wall. A border wall would hurt communities living at the border, endanger wildlife, and have damaging impacts on the environment.
āThe environmental and social consequences of adding hundreds of miles of additional barriers in three states would be devastating,ā said Gloria D. Smith, managing attorney at the Sierra Club. āTrumpās border wall would cause irreversible damage to desert ecosystems and sabotage wildlife protection efforts by destroying habitat and wildlife migration corridors. Endangered species could disappear from our southern border, while fragile landscapes are decimated by this destructive and pointless vanity project. This is yet another illegal and dangerous effort by the president to further his anti-immigrant and anti-environment agenda.ā
The lawsuit argues the presidentās declaration and diversion of funds violates core constitutional principles and multiple statutes.
The preliminary injunction motion is available here:
/legal-document/sierra-club-v-trump-motion-preliminary-injunction
More information on the lawsuit challenging Trumpās national security declaration is here:
/news/aclu-files-lawsuit-challenging-national-emergency-declaration