Federal law waived for Big Bend wall project two weeks after Presidio lawsuit

Suit says altered levee could cause ‘deadly’ flooding

The Trump administration’s waiver of the federal law allows the border wall project to advance without the interagency coordination requirements that the plaintiffs argued were mandatory under the statute, the Associated Press reported.

The Presidio Municipal Development District, a local economic development group, filed the lawsuit last month challenging the administration’s plan to construct a border barrier through the Big Bend region. The suit claims that border agencies are not coordinating with other government entities as required by law in their plans to alter a local levee to accommodate the wall.

The district said the potential modification of the levee could lead to deadly flooding in and around Presidio, a Texas border city.

“The levees protect the entire City of Presidio and its residents, and flooding would threaten lives, homes, businesses, and infrastructure,” the lawsuit said.

The plaintiffs are asking a federal judge to issue an injunction that would effectively halt construction of the wall in the Big Bend region while the litigation proceeds. The district said the border wall generally, and the flooding risk specifically, will harm the entity’s property and its economic development initiatives.

The administration’s waiver, issued two weeks after the lawsuit was filed, eliminates the statutory requirement that was central to the district’s legal challenge.