Trump Judge Rules Biden Canceling Border Wall Broke Environmental Law

A Trump-appointed judge ruled last week in favor of two Arizona ranchers who argued that President Joe Biden’s immigration policies caused environmental damage.
Judge Trevor McFadden sided with two ranchers from Arizona—a border state that’s a battleground in the presidential race—who claimed that the Biden administration’s halt on the border wall, which violated laws requiring an environmental review, caused concrete damage to the environment.
The case centers around whether the Biden administration violated the National Environmental Policy Act by not reviewing the potential environmental impact of halting construction of the border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, an action he took on his first day in office to fulfil a key campaign promise.
In a ruling issued Friday, McFadden agreed that the Biden administration “repeatedly flouted long-standing environmental law” in its “haste to reverse its predecessor’s border policies,” and that those violations resulted in environmental damages for the ranchers, Steven Smith and Gail Getzwiller.
The ruling came from the case Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform et al. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email.
McFadden pointed to testimony from Smith, who testified that he has seen trash pile up “dramatically” in the past few years because of increased migrant presence on his properties, which range from border town Douglas, Arizona, to areas up to 40 miles from the border. The trash deposits may negatively impact the environment for years, and his cattle have also eaten some of the trash, he testified.
Cattle ingesting the trash has resulted in lost profits for Smith, according to the ruling. It also noted that migrants have tapped into his reservoir for water, a “scarce resource” on his ranch. This allegedly put stress on his cattle that led to reduced reproduction, McFadden wrote.
“In sum, the Court finds that Smith suffered tangible harms that were caused by an influx of illegal immigrants, McFadden wrote. “The Court fully credits Smith’s testimony in general, and his descriptions of these tangible harms in particular.
“The Court also finds that DHS’s decisions to cancel all border wall construction and terminate MPP [Migrant Protection Protocols] substantially contributed to that influx in illegal immigration.”
The Department of Homeland Security removed its two pillars of the strategy to combat illegal immigration by halting border wall construction, and a “preponderance of the evidence” shows that Smith’s injuries “fairly trace” to that decision, McFadden wrote.
McFadden serves on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. President Donald Trump nominated him for the post in 2017. A bipartisan coalition of senators approved McFadden, who has ruled on a number of high-profile issues. He rejected a Trump lawsuit to block congressional Democrats from obtaining his tax returns in 2021 and has overseen some cases related to the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Friday’s ruling comes as immigration remains a major political issue ahead of the November 5 election between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Republicans blamed Biden for a surge in migrant border crossings over the past few years, though border crossings dropped over the summer after he took executive action preventing migrants crossing the border illegally from seeking asylum.
Immigration remains one of Trump’s strongest issues, though some recent surveys suggest Harris is cutting into his border advantage.