Boundary Wall: Biden administration asks Supreme Court to put arguments on hold

The Justice Department said Biden has set a “break in construction” so the administration can make an assessment “of the legality of the financing and contracting methods used to build the wall.” The American Civil Liberties Union, Sierra Club and Southern Border Communities Coalition last year asked the Supreme Court to block the construction of the wall.

Just hours after his presidency, Biden immediately took a shot at one of his predecessor’s most important legacies when he signed a proclamation calling for the construction of the border wall to be ended. The government’s filing on Monday shows how Biden’s Justice Department is in the process of halting construction while assessing the actions of the former government.

In a separate Supreme Court case, the Justice Department asks for oral arguments to be suspended in a Trump-era policy case demanding that non-Mexican migrants remain in Mexico until their next court days in the United States . The Department of Homeland Security recently suspended enrollments for the program, marking a step towards ending it completely. That case is scheduled for March 1. Thousands of migrants covered by the policy remain waiting in Mexico under dangerous and deplorable conditions.

Organizations challenging the so-called “Stay in Mexico” policy in the lawsuit include the Innovation Law Lab, along with other immigrant rights groups.

The Biden administration is set to roll back dozens of Trump’s policies. In the near term, Elizabeth Prelogar, Biden’s Acting Solicitor General, is expected to play a key role in managing a wave of potential turnarounds involving issues such as immigration, health care and religion.

Biden is expected to sign more immigration executive actions at the White House on Tuesday.

Boundary wall land grabbing attempts declined

In one court document, filed Jan. 22, the Justice Department asked for a land seizure case to be continued for “at least 60 days,” citing Biden’s inauguration day proclamation leading in part to a review of the funds transferred for wall construction. .

In another case, the Justice Department said it will reject a motion for immediate ownership of land, according to Ricardo de Anda, a lawyer for Guillermo Caldera who lives in Laredo, Texas and whose property was at risk of confiscation.

“We find it encouraging that the court is taking judicial notice of the executive order signed by President Biden that halts construction of Trump’s border wall, ordering the government to notify the court and the parties if it intends to proceed. “Go ahead with taking Texan properties,” de Anda said in a statement. Two other cases expect similar motions to be filed, De Anda said.

Ricky Garza, a staff attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, a legal advocacy group representing landowners in land seizure cases, told CNN property owners in a “holding pattern.”

“There have been moves to a break and that’s been positive,” said Garza. “What needs to be done now is for the administration to review and reject all of these things.”

Texas Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar, a critic of Trump’s border wall, said on Thursday that the government had informed his office that the US Army Corps of Engineers was halting property purchases in accordance with Biden’s executive order.

“Today I received a message that, in accordance with President Biden’s executive order, property acquisition activities, such as surveys and negotiations with landowners, have been suspended in consultation with the US Army Corps of Engineers,” said Cuellar in a statement.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

The Army Corps of Engineers, which directs and oversees border projects, “has suspended work on all border infrastructure projects for DoD and DHS until further notice,” said Raini Brunson, a spokesman for the agency.

Dror Ladin, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project, praised the decision to delay the Supreme Court’s oral arguments, but said more needs to be done.

“It’s a good start that the Biden administration is not rushing to defend Trump’s illegal wall in court, but putting the brakes on isn’t enough. Trump’s wall devastated border communities, the environment and tribal sites,” said Ladin. “It is time for the Biden government to commit to border communities and to reduce environmental damage and bring down the wall.”

Trump expedited lawsuits

Over the past four years, the Trump administration has been speeding up the filing of cases in its efforts to put in additional barriers on the southern border. At the heart of those cases were landowners, some of whom leaned on the wall and others who criticized it.

Joseph Hein, a landowner in Laredo whose property was being revised for reconstruction, described the past four years as a “state of uncertainty.”

“I was basically at the mercy of those who gave me the information they wanted to give me, and actually the information they gave me was nothing,” Hein said, referring to the Army Corps of Engineers and Customs and Border Protection.

Biden’s declaration put an end to Trump’s national emergency call, allowing the previous administration to step into the Pentagon’s resources, and called for contract revisions.

The changes to border wall construction made under Biden so far have also raised questions in ongoing border wall cases. Shortly after the publication of Biden’s proclamation, Judge Haywood Gilliam ordered the parties in an ongoing wall lawsuit to provide an update by Feb. 16.