Court Gives Green Light to Sue Biden for Trashing Environmental Law
A lawsuit charging that Biden administration immigration policies violate environmental law is moving forward in federal court. The legal challenge deserves a fair hearing amid widening degradation of southern borderlands, increasing strains on the nation’s infrastructure and a host of other impacts that can no longer be ignored.
Judge Trevor McFadden, appointed to the District Court bench in Washington, D.C., by President Donald Trump in 2017, took the case brought by the Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform. MCIR asserts that Biden administration policies have vastly increased illegal immigration in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
“NEPA requires federal agencies to assess the environmental impact of major federal actions that significantly affect the environment. When it comes to mass migration, no such studies have ever been conducted,” noted Matt O’Brien, director of investigations for FAIR’s legal arm, the Immigration Reform Law Institute.
In enacting NEPA in 1970, Congress expressed particular concern about “the profound influences of population growth.”
Though neither FAIR nor IRLI are party to the MCIR lawsuit, O’Brien said, “It cannot be denied that mass immigration places major demands upon our water supplies, food sources and green spaces — not to mention that most unlawful migration into the United States results in large numbers of aliens negatively impacting ecosystems along our southern border.”
From trash buildup to urban sprawl to global emissions, MCIR declares that “environmental considerations have become impossible to sweep up the rug.” While earlier studies showed a host of negative effects by ever-rising immigration, the entry of 4.9 million illegal aliens on Biden’s watch is straining environmental systems as never before.
(Note: 4.9 million, which is larger than the population of Los Angeles, represents unique border crossings, not unique individuals, thus no one knows the exact number admitted. So the figure is relevant to environmental degradation along the border, but not entirely applicable to its impact across the U.S.)
O’Brien likens the NEPA gambit to one the government used to take down Al Capone, the notorious gangster who was finally prosecuted on tax evasion – not on murder or rum-running charges. Taking a similar tack, the state of Arizona last year filed a NEPA complaint in a bid to restart construction of the border wall and maintain the Remain in Mexico program.
If a successful litigation under NEPA forces federal policymakers to back off their profoundly irresponsible immigration schemes, it would be a clean victory for Americans who care about the environment, border security and public safety of this country.