Connecticut is part of a coalition of 18 states that recently announced a settlement over funds diverted to pay for the construction of former president Donald Trump’s border wall in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. Attorney General William Tong announced via a July 18 press release that the Biden administration had agreed to “cease construction of border barriers with the challenged funds and take several important measures to remediate the environmental harm caused by the construction.”
The settlement will also see funding restored to military projects in some of the states involved in the lawsuit. Funding from those projects had been diverted to pay for border wall construction after Congress declined to include Trump’s desired level of funding for construction in the fiscal year 2019, and again in 2020.
The 18 states, led by California, first challenged Trump’s actions in 2019 when the former president declared a national emergency as an attempt to redirect funds to construction of the wall from other Congressionally-approved appropriations. The states sought to block the emergency declaration, diversion of the funds, and construction of the border wall.
The settlement agreement is between the plaintiff states and President Joseph Biden’s administration, including the president, and the secretaries of a number of cabinet departments. The administration agrees to stop construction of border barriers using diverted funds. When Biden took office, he issued a proclamation halting the diversion of tax dollars for the border wall and directed the secretary of the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to pause construction and the use of funds on construction of the border wall.
Approximately $427 million in funding for military construction projects was restored by the agreement.
The settlement terms not only include the restoration of diverted funds, but agreements that the federal agencies involved will take steps to undo environmental damage that may have been done as part of construction, as well as to take steps to preserve the environment.
DHS will provide $25 million in funding to acquire conservation property to offset environmental impacts from the border wall’s construction and a further $1.1 million in funding for programs to monitor a number of federally endangered species. These include ocelot, jaguar, and the Mexican Gray Wolf.
Settlement Terms
Under the agreement, DOD will also restore military construction funds to projects in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Virginia and Construction.
DHS also agreed to remove any construction material, equipment, or debris remaining from areas where projects were underway and agrees to install wildlife passages for small animals, the size of a standard piece of paper, in the border barrier system at 20 locations. The agency will consult with California, Nex Mexico, the Sierra Club, the Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC), and officials at the Department of the Interior about recommended locations for the passages.
The agreement also includes four passages for large animals, with dimensions of 7 feet by 5 feet, and one location with a ceiling of 18 feet to be located in Arizona and New Mexico. DHS agrees to install the gates but reserves the right to close them for border security purposes. It must inform the Sierra Club and SBCC when it does so and provide periodic status reports.
DHS also agrees to open existing stormwater gates in the border barrier full-time in Arizona and New Mexico. As with the large animal passages, it can close them for border security but must alert the Sierra Club and SBCC.
The agreement also stipulates that existing gaps in the border barrier fence in specified locations in Arizona and New Mexico will not be filled in for two years. DHS also agrees to mitigate the impact of lighting at the border barrier in Yuma County, Arizona and to complete an environmental planning process should it install new lights.
Other parts of the agreement relate to mitigating the impacts of road construction, remediation of environmental impacts on the environment and species in various border control areas located within the borders of several plaintiff states, invasive species management, decommissioning of water wells and temporary roads used for border wall construction projects, stabilization and erosion control, repair of cattleguards and livestock fencing, and various measures to improve water flow and drainage.
The administration’s agreements are contingent on the availability of appropriated funds. The plaintiffs must be notified immediately if the administration is unable to meet the terms laid out in the agreement.
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