A federal judge is permitting the Department of Homeland Security to proceed with plans to erect a border wall through a levee system protecting a small Texas town on the border with Mexico.
By Catholics for Catholics
A federal judge is permitting the Department of Homeland Security to proceed with plans to erect a border wall through a levee system protecting a small Texas town on the border with Mexico, rebuffing arguments by the town that the wall could give way to flooding.
Sunday’s ruling denotes a victory for the Trump administration as it spears ahead with efforts to build a $46 billion wall along the U.S.-Mexico border from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, according to a story by Newsmax.
With a population of about 3,200 people, the town of Presidio contended the wall could provoke flooding and that the administration isn’t being law abiding as it races forward with its plans.
The town’s development district sued earlier this year to stop the department from going forward with construction.
“For the foregoing reasons, despite the understandable concerns expressed by the plaintiff regarding the harm it and the plaintiff’s residents might sustain by the potential construction of the Smart Wall, the Court is compelled to deny the plaintiff’s motion for a stay,” wrote Judge Reggie B. Walton.
The Presidio’s development district lawyers maintained in a court hearing that the government’s plans could put in jeopardy the levee system protecting the town from flash flooding and that the government flouted a key act that requires it to seek permission from the Army Corps of Engineers before building on or near the levees.
“We are very disappointed that the court will allow this potentially disastrous construction to continue, but we remain committed to protecting the Big Bend area and those who rely on the threatened levees,” said the town’s development district in a statement Monday.
Presidio is protected by a series of berms and levees built in the 1970s and 1980s along the Rio Grande and tributaries to combat flooding.
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