Nature groups to fight fence

Three Rio Grande Valley environmental groups have signed on to a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's right to waive federal and state laws to build a fence on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Frontera Audubon Society, Friends of Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge and Friends of Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge have joined several other groups and governments as plaintiffs in a lawsuit to be filed next week in federal court.

Other plaintiffs include El Paso and Hudspeth counties and the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo, an American Indian tribe in West Texas.

The lawsuit is on behalf of all the states affected by the proposed border fence, said Wayne Bartholomew, executive director of the Frontera Audubon Society.

"It's a brand-new constitutional challenge that covers a much broader area than other (border-fence) lawsuits," Bartholomew said. "We're hoping it will create a situation in which DHS would have to comply with the law."

In April, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff waived several environmental laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, to expedite construction of the border fence in four states. Chertoff has this authority under the 2005 Real ID Act.

Environmental groups already have challenged the Real ID Act in federal court. Last year, the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife filed a lawsuit to stop fence construction on the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area in Arizona. A federal judge issued an injunction that later became moot after Chertoff invoked his waiver authority. In return, the groups have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and expect a response this summer, said Oliver Bernstein, Sierra Club spokesman.

Advocates are filing these lawsuits because they have no other means to express their concern about the fence's environmental impact, Bernstein said.

"With the waivers, our avenue to comment was removed, and folks were left with only the courts to make themselves heard," he said.

Officials with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have estimated that 60 to 75 percent of the Rio Grande Valley's refuge lands could be impacted by the border fence. Advocates say the fence could limit endangered species' access to habitat and fresh water from the Rio Grande.

Shane Wilson, president of Friends of Laguna Atascosa, said he's concerned the ocelot, an endangered cat only found in South Texas, will become extinct if it becomes more isolated.

"We have to do everything we can possibly do to save this animal," Wilson said. "We're fighting so (Homeland Security) will go back and evaluate their decision."

Although the Department of Homeland Security is "mindful" of environmental concerns, the time for debate has come to an end, said Laura Keehner, DHS spokeswoman.

"We've changed fencing based on environmental concerns ... we've worked with the community," Keehner said. "But we have a mandate from Congress to build the fence. The American people have spoken loudly and clearly that they want their border secure, and that's what we're doing."