California Sues Trump Over His Border Wall

State AG Xavier Beccera filed the lawsuit Wednesday
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 20, 2017 5:28 PM CDT
California Sues Trump Over His Border Wall
With the US-Mexican border in the background, California State Attorney General Xavier Becerra talks to members of the media after he announced that he'd be filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the building of a border wall Sept. 20, 2017.   (Hayne Palmour IV/The San Diego Union-Tribune via AP)

“No one gets to ignore the laws," Xavier Becerra says. "Not even the president of the United States." The California attorney general sued the Trump administration Wednesday over the president's proposed border wall, which Becerra says violates myriad environmental laws, the Los Angeles Times reports. “The border between the US and Mexico spans some 2,000 miles," Becerra says. "The list of laws violated by the president’s administration in order to build his campaign wall is almost as long.” According to Reuters, the lawsuit asks a judge to stop all construction on the wall until the federal government ensures it complies with environmental laws and also to tell the Department of Homeland Security it can't circumvent federal guidelines in order to build the wall.

The lawsuit claims plans for the border wall include the improper waiver of 37 federal statutes and that federal officials haven't shown that the wall will reduce undocumented immigrants in the San Diego area or that undocumented immigrants are even a major problem in the area. It also claims the Department of Homeland Security violated the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine by allowing the Trump administration to waive state and local laws. Fox News reports the lawsuit is the latest stage in California's war on the Trump administration, which includes a lawsuit over DACA last week, a sanctuary state measure passed over the weekend, and a recent censure against Trump for his comments on neo-Nazis and white nationalists. (More border wall stories.)

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