The legal pushback against President Joe Biden’s radical left-wing agenda has begun in earnest, as Arizona becomes the latest state to take the administration to court.
No sooner than Biden took office and sat down behind the Resolute Desk, his handlers had a pre-selected stack of executive orders for him to sign. The majority of those early EOs were reversals of very effective border control and immigration enforcement policies enacted by Biden’s predecessor, President Donald Trump.
And while illegal immigration had already been rising (thanks to Biden’s campaign pledges to a) reverse Trump orders and b) stop deportations), it really took off after the current president proved he planned to keep those promises.
But Biden’s orders have had real-world consequences, especially for border states like Texas and Arizona, where historically, illegal immigration has always been the most problematic.
As such, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has filed suit against the administration, alleging “harmful immigration orders, and is now asking a court to void [Biden’s] executive actions to halt the construction of the border wall and reversing the Trump administration’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy,” The Epoch Times reported.
Brnovich is arguing in court that those orders have violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires federal agencies like the DHS to weigh environmental considerations before taking any significant federal action.
The DHS and federal officials, however, did not provide environmental impact statements or environmental assessments after the agency stopped construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall and started permitting entry to illegal immigrants after ending the Migrant Protection Protocols, the Remain in Mexico policy that was started under the Trump administration, according to Brnovich’s office
“It’s the pinnacle of hypocrisy for the Biden Administration to claim it wants to protect our environment, while not enforcing federal statutes that are specifically designed for that purpose,” the Republican attorney general noted on Monday. “We’re not going to sit idly by as the Biden Administration ignores real harms to our state resulting from its heavy-handed executive orders.”
The order to stop wall construction came on Biden’s first day in office; getting rid of the MPPs took a few days more.
“Although those immigration policies undeniably have significant effects on the environment, Defendants have not even attempted to comply with NEPA,” said Brnovich.
The suit argues that thousands of illegal immigrants have settled down in Arizona after crossing from Mexico who otherwise would not have if the wall was completed as Trump had ordered and the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy was still being enforced.
“Migrants, like everyone else, need housing, infrastructure, hospitals, and schools. They drive cars, purchase goods, and use public parks and other facilities. All of these activities have significant environmental impacts, including displacement of undeveloped lands and additional air emissions,” said Brnovich.
“But although courts have repeatedly recognized that these impacts must be analyzed under NEPA, DHS has never even attempted to do so,” he added, according to his press release, which also said that after construction was halted, “machinery has been standing idle” in parts of his state.
