For Immediate Release

January 31, 2019

 

Contact: Raul Garcia, Earthjustice - rgarcia@earthjustice.org, (202) 667-4500

 

Udall, Heinrich Proposals Would Protect Communities, Wildlife, Restore Rule of Law to the Border

New bill would block “waivers of law” sought by administration to construct harmful border wall

 

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-NM) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) introduced a package of proposals today including legislation that would eliminate the “waivers of law” that President Trump commonly uses to circumvent decades of legal protection in order to build border walls.  

 

The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been granted unprecedented power in recent years to circumvent federal, state, and local laws to build border walls. As the nation’s leading environmental law organization, Earthjustice has been a leader in the fight against such attempts to nullify federal laws with “waive in their entirety” orders under Section 102 of the RealID Act. To date, DHS has waived nearly 50 federal laws to construct walls and opposed the passage of the Real ID Act in 2005 because of this waiver authority.

 

The following is a statement from Martin Hayden, Vice President of Policy and Legislation, Earthjustice:

 

“We thank Senators Udall and Heinrich for their efforts to protect our border communities, landscapes, wildlife, air and water. President Trump’s border wall shouldn’t be built anywhere, and it especially shouldn’t be built while the administration is flaunting the law and ignoring the costs to people and our environment. The president may think he can push aside the foundations of our democracy to destroy border communities and wildlife, but the law is the law, and no one is above it, no matter who occupies the White House.”

 

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