Campaign Action
When it comes to the resistance against Donald Trump, it’s no exaggeration to say that California has been leading the way. For the state, it’s personal. California is home to the largest undocumented population in the nation, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. Since his poorly-attended inauguration, the Los Angeles Times reports that state leaders have introduced more than 35 bills and two dozen resolutions opposing Trump’s xenophobic agenda, including the most sweeping anti-deportation bill in the nation. Today, the state’s attorney general announced the latest action includes a lawsuit to stop Trump’s racist border wall:
The lawsuit set to be filed in federal court in San Diego will argue that the effort violates federal law and the Constitution by intruding on state authority, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said.
"They're violating the Tenth Amendment and infringing on a lot of state laws, not just federal laws, that affect our state. At the same time, they're trying to do something that only Congress can do," Becerra told journalists in Washington in advance of an official announcement he plans to make in San Diego Wednesday.
Becerra said the suit will argue that federal officials are running afoul of the law by declaring the expansion of the border wall to be an emergency that justifies waiving environmental studies and usual contracting procedures.
Aside from the costs to the U.S. taxpayers—a friendly reminder that Mexico isn’t paying for shit—experts have said that a wall would be “catastrophic” to the environment (not that the Trump administration cares): “This would cause incalculable damage to the integrity of wildlife populations on either side of the border, as well as the massive societal disruption it would cause.” That includes a governmental disruption, since Trump has floated shutting us down over the stupid thing. “Mexican officials have flatly rejected contributing any funds to such a project,” noted Politico. ”With most Democrats in Congress staunchly opposed to the idea, it's unclear how Trump will get money for construction.”