National Butterfly Center seeks court order against construction of border wall.
The National Butterfly Center, which straddles a levee where the Trump administration plans to build a wall, is seeking a restraining order against the federal government to block construction.
The center wants to prevent the Homeland Security Department from taking any more action to build a concrete-and-steel wall along the border until a lawsuit filed by the center has been resolved.
“If somebody’s punching you, you ask them to stop. And that’s what we’re doing,” said Jeffrey Glassberg, president of the North American Butterfly Association, which owns the center.
In November, the Homeland Security Department awarded millions of dollars in a contract with SLSCO Ltd. to build 6 miles of levee wall that would slice through the butterfly center and elsewhere along the river.
Customs and Border Protection recently announced that construction equipment is on the way to the Rio Grande Valley. Work is expected to begin later this month.
The butterfly center also is asking for a preliminary injunction until the government has properly surveyed and assessed the land per the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act.
Those two acts, along with 26 others, were waived by the Trump administration to expedite construction of the wall.
Through funding already approved by Congress from a previous budget cycle, 25 more miles of border wall is expected to go up in Hidalgo County. Overall, 33 miles are funded in the Rio Grande Valley.
Surveyors staked out the wall route last week.
If the government proceeds with construction as planned, 70 of the butterfly center’s 100 acres would be placed between the wall and the river. It also would clear out some of the sanctuary’s land for a 150-foot “enforcement zone” along the wall.
On any given day, hundreds of species of butterflies flit through the nonprofit sanctuary, which is part of the North American Butterfly Association.
Birders from across the country visit the refuge to spot and photograph birds unique to the Rio Grande Valley, and thousands of local schoolchildren take field trips to the center each year.
“Border wall construction is beginning on land
adjacent to NABA’s property and Defendants’ constitutional violations are escalating,” reads the injunction filing. “Immediate injunctive relief is necessary to prevent irreparable harm.”
“We hope it stops the lawless behavior of the United States federal government,” Glassberg said.
The center filed a lawsuit in December 2017 after contractors with chainsaws arrived on the center’s property to begin preparations for a border wall. The center accused the government of not following due process and invading private property.
“It’s an intolerable situation,” Glassberg said. “If it was happening anywhere else in the country, people would be jumping up and down and pulling out their hair and screaming like crazy.”