Biden Administration Officials Sued by Arizona AG Over Immigration Executive Orders

Arizona’s top state prosecutor sued the Biden administration Monday over what he calls “environmentally disruptive” decisions to halt border wall construction and change immigration policies.

The lawsuit filed by Republican Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich in federal court in Arizona against officials in Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration says the reversals of previous policies violate the National Environmental Protection Act.

“Defendants have embarked on multiple environmentally disruptive policies without performing even cursory environmental analysis,” the lawsuit says.

The filing asks the U.S. District Court, for now, to void decisions to halt border wall construction and the “Remain in Mexico” policy requiring asylum seekers to wait south of the border while their claims are processed.

The DHS and federal officials, however, did not provide environmental impact statements or environmental assessments after the agency stopped construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall and started permitting entry to illegal immigrants after ending the Migrant Protection Protocols, the Remain in Mexico policy that was started under the Trump administration, according to Brnovich’s office.

“It’s the pinnacle of hypocrisy for the Biden Administration to claim it wants to protect our environment, while not enforcing federal statutes that are specifically designed for that purpose,” the Republican attorney general noted on Monday. “We’re not going to sit idly by as the Biden Administration ignores real harms to our state resulting from its heavy-handed executive orders.”

“Migrants, like everyone else, need housing, infrastructure, hospitals, and schools. They drive cars, purchase goods, and use public parks and other facilities. All of these activities have significant environmental impacts, including displacement of undeveloped lands and additional air emissions,” said Brnovich.

Earlier this week, Brnovich took aim at Kamala Harris.

During an interview on Fox Business, Brnovich said Harris has failed to respond to his invitation to tour the crisis at the US-Mexico border.

“I guess if you were a philosopher you would say no response is a very loud response because we’ve not received any response,” Brnovich said.

Harris needs to “look into the eyes of people being smuggled across the border, being exploited by the cartels and realize this is a humanitarian crisis on so many levels,” Brnovich said.

“It’s not fair to the migrants that think they’re being promised things, it’s not fair to the people – the hardworking taxpayers of this country who are going to have to subsidize and pay for health care and child care and other social services for these migrants,” he added.

As noted by Conservative Brief’s Jon Dougherty:

Two weeks ago, Joe Biden placed his VP, Kamala Harris, in charge of the worsening migrant crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border, but she has yet to visit the border in any state to get a first-hand look at the situation.

That doesn’t mean that Harris hasn’t been burning up jet fuel.

She spent her Easter at home in Brentwood, southern California, “where she baked a ‘beautiful’ roast pork with rice and peas,” the Daily Mail reported, “but did not find time in her schedule to visit the nearby border.”

Over the past two weeks, Harris has also traveled to Connecticut to speak with the Boys and Girls Club of New Haven as well as Oakland, Calif., to meet with Gov. Gavin Newsom to support him as he faces a potential recall election. Harris has also traveled to a bakery in Chicago.

Harris has also been busy moving into her new residence at the Naval Observatory just days after she complained about living out of suitcases while it was being renovated.

Days after Biden appointed Harris to oversee his administration’s border responses, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, called her “the worst possible choice.”

He accused Harris of being someone who has “completely trivialized the issue by putting someone in charge who flat out just doesn’t care.”

Also, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, predicted that Harris “is not going to be able to solve this crisis” after he and 17 other GOP senators visited the border in his home state, adding that the migrant crisis has become Biden’s “biggest political mess.”

SOURCE: Conservative Brief