Fourteen Congressmen take DHS's waiver authority to Supreme Court

Three years after Congress granted the federal government unprecedented waiver authority, 14 congressmen are challenging how that authority is being used to construct a fence on the U.S.-Mexico border.

On Monday, U.S. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., led a group, including Rio Grande Valley U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, to file a brief in Supreme Court which questions the constitutionality of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's waivers.

Last week's waivers filed by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff would suspend more than 30 laws, which Chertoff said could interfere with "the expeditious construction of barriers." It was the fourth set of federal waivers aimed at accommodating DHS's plan to finish 700 miles of fencing before 2009.

"The American people entrust Congress to ensure that the laws of this land are faithfully executed not excused by the Executive Branch," Thompson wrote in a press release.

The brief, which Thompson plans to file at the end of the month, finds fault with DHS' plans to suspend important environmental laws.

"The blanket waiver of laws like the Clean Air Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act is a clear and disturbing abuse of the secretary's discretion," Rep. John D. Dingell, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, wrote in a release.

The suspension of environmental laws could leave South Texas wildlife refuges on the south side of the barrier without legal recourse.

For more on this story, read Wednesday's Brownsville Herald.

Ksieff@brownsvilleherald.com