Officials in the small West Texas border city of Presidio are suing the Trump administration over its planned border wall through the state's Big Bend region, arguing the plan could leave the community along the Rio Grande vulnerable to "deadly" flash flooding.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court Wednesday, targets the administration's plan to build part of the 30-foot-high border wall top of an existing local levee system.
The levee – known as the Presidio Flood Control Project – is maintained by the U.S. side of the International Boundary and Water Commission, which invested millions of dollars into the system after a disastrous flood in 2008.
In Wednesday's lawsuit, the Presidio Municipal Development District accuses federal border agencies of violating federal law by moving forward with the wall plan without obtaining proper permissions to build on the levee. PMDD, a local economic development entity, is asking a federal district judge to temporarily block construction on the wall.
The district argues that under the federal Rivers and Harbors Act, border agencies need approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the wall. The district claims the Trump administration hasn't obtained – or even sought – that approval.
"Here in Presidio, the river has never divided us. It's the reason our whole community is here, on both sides," John Kennedy, PMDD's executive director, said in a statement. "The levee is what lets us live safely alongside it, and we're asking that it get the flood-safety review the law requires before anyone builds on it."
The Department of Homeland Security did not comment directly on the lawsuit when asked by Marfa Public Radio on Wednesday.
The Democracy Forward Foundation, a national nonprofit, is representing PMDD in the case.
In an interview, the legal group's president and CEO, Skye Perryman, said building the border wall on the Presidio levee without the reviews required by the Rivers and Harbors Act could lead to an "environmental, economic and humanitarian disaster."
"This construction would compromise critical flood infrastructure and create grave risks for the surrounding communities," she said. "We are very well aware of what happened in 2008 when the Rio Grande rose and there was flooding that required a national response."
While the Homeland Security secretary has waived a wide range of federal laws in recent months to speed up the Big Bend area border wall, the Rivers and Harbors Act is not one of them.
Presidio Mayor John Ferguson told Marfa Public Radio he "fully supports" the lawsuit, and that the Presidio City Council may soon vote on a resolution or similar action formally backing the case.
Ferguson, a staunch opponent of the border wall plan, said he's seen increased signs lately of the border wall plan getting closer to reality.
"I see more and more evidence here in Presidio of machinery rolling into town, a lot of work trucks and things like that that are obviously not from here," he said. "They're getting ready to in some capacity get to work."
Both the Army Corps and the International Boundary and Water Commission did not immediately respond to Marfa Public Radio's request for comment on the lawsuit.
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