Border Fence Challenge Rebuffed by Supreme Court
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David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2008
The government’s plan to build a 670-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border took another step forward Monday when the Supreme Court turned away a legal challenge from environmentalists.
The court’s action clears the way for U.S. officials to press ahead with the project with little worry that judges will be able to stop it.
Three years ago, Congress gave Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff an unusual power to “waive all legal requirements” that could stand in the way of building the fence.
These requirements included the nation’s environmental protection laws. The same congressional action took away the authority of judges to review Chertoff’s decisions.
Last year, after Chertoff waived at least 20 laws and regulations to complete a section of the fence in Arizona, two environmental groups sued. They said it was unconstitutional to give a Cabinet secretary such sweeping power.
But a federal judge rejected that claim. And on Monday the Supreme Court without comment declined to hear a petition submitted by Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club.
The high court’s refusal is not a ruling, and it doesn’t mean the justices won’t reconsider the issue. But for now, Chertoff and his department have the go-ahead to proceed with the fence. Nearly half the barrier has been built.
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The project still faces legal challenges from landowners and tribal groups.
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Email David G. Savage at david.savage@latimes.com.
(Posted on June 24, 2008)
Comments
We have to approach this problem of immigration with some holistic common sense. This piecemeal approach isn’t getting much done.
Which is why I think America needs to implement the following ASAP:
1. The United States Must Secure Its Borders. Border Security Is The Basic Responsibility Of A Sovereign Nation And An Urgent Requirement Of Our National Security. Remind them that this should be done in a manner consistent with protecting the liberties of United States citizens to freely travel abroad and return and is not an opportunity for the Federal government to exercise authoritarian control over its citizens detaining them for bench warrants and unpaid traffic tickets for example.
2. We Must Hold Employers Accountable For The Workers They Hire. No Temporary Worker Program is needed. We have tens of millions of able bodied citizens in this country living below the poverty line and the magnet of jobs and free social care must end for non-citizens.
3. We Must Bring Undocumented Workers Already In The Country Out Of The Shadows… and send them home. HOW we do this; however, is extremely important and needs to be done in a manner recognizing human rights. Consider asking elected representatives to exercise foreign aid and expertise to both ease the transition of homeward bound illegals and influence origin countries for positive change. We’ve spent hundreds of billions of dollars policing Iraq and hundreds of billions of dollars in social costs just for illegal aliens in this country. It is a bargain to spend a few billion a year influencing governments like Mexico which failed to provide for their own people to finally take on that responsibility and working with them to build the expertise necessary to see positive change occur. It’s money well spent, something we should take seriously, and we will save much more than that many times over once the illegals have left.
4. We Must Promote Assimilation Into Our Society By Teaching New Immigrants English And American Values.
5. End Chain Migration and Restore Legal Immigration Levels to Conservative Norms..
Join Numbers USA at http://www.numbersusa.com/ and get started if you haven’t already.
Posted by Unemployed WASP at 12:23 PM on June 25
A virtual fence doesn’t stop anyone from coming over. All it does is watch them come over and count them maybe. It’s like having an alarm on a property with no locks or fences.
Posted by Unemployed WASP at 12:31 PM on June 25
That’s exactly why I hold the green environmentalists in such contempt. They pretend to care about resources, excessive pollution, etc, but support overpopulation with illegal aliens which can only contribute to excessive consumption of the very things they claim to be important?
Posted by truthbetold at 3:38 PM on June 25