California’s attorney general plans to file a lawsuit on Wednesday challenging President Donald Trump’s plan to construct a wall along the border with Mexico, the state AG’s office said, adding to the obstacles facing a key Trump campaign promise.

Trump has insisted Mexico would pay for building the wall, which experts said could cost about $22 billion and take more than three years to complete.

With Mexico refusing to pay, Trump has said since taking office in January that the wall will initially need U.S. funding but that he will find a way to make Mexico ultimately pay for it.

Democrats in the US Congress, however, firmly oppose the border wall, and at least some Democratic senators would need to vote for its inclusion in a spending package.

Democratic attorneys general including California’s Xavier Becerra have sued the Trump administration on a range of issues.

The border wall lawsuit set to be filed on Wednesday will allege that Trump’s wall violates federal environmental standards, as well as constitutional provisions regarding the separation of powers and states’ rights, a Becerra spokesperson said.

Last month the Trump administration said it had selected four construction companies to build concrete prototypes for a wall, which will be will be 30 feet (9 meters) tall and about 30 feet wide and will be tested in San Diego.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App</s>The state of California filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against President Trump's proposed plan for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Xavier Becerra Xavier BecerraTrump administration rolls back Obama-era lightbulb rules 20 states sue Trump administration over Flores rule California leads states in lawsuit over Trump public charge rule MORE, the state's attorney general, announced in a statement that he has filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

The lawsuit argues that the Department of Homeland Security improperly waived the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws pertaining to immigration and the environment to expedite construction of the border wall in two California counties.

The lawsuit also claims that the DHS violated the 10th Amendment of the Constitution and the separation of powers doctrine.

"The Trump administration has once again ignored laws it doesn't like in order to resuscitate a campaign talking point and build a wall on our southern border," Becerra said in the statement. "President Trump has yet to pivot from candidate Trump to a leader of a nation built on the rule of law. That's dangerous."

It's just the latest fight to erupt over Trump's signature campaign issue.

During the 2016 race, Trump repeatedly promised that the U.S. would build a wall on the southern border, with Mexico picking up the tab. Trump's supporters frequently chanted "build the wall" at his rallies.

But Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has repeatedly said that Mexico will not pay for the construction of the wall.

Congress has yet to fully fund the construction of the wall. Trump did not insist that the funding be included in the deal struck earlier this month to fund the government through December.

But the White House has made clear it's not giving up on the project.

Trump and Vice President Pence, in a series of promoted Facebook ads this week, state unequivocally that the wall will be built.

"There's been a lot of noise and a lot of rumors," reads the ad on Trump's personal Facebook page.

"WE WILL BUILD A WALL (NOT A FENCE) ALONG THE SOUTHERN BORDER OF THE UNITED STATES," it adds, calling the issue "non-negotiable."

- This story was updated at 2:45 p.m.</s>With the U.S Mexican border in the background, California State Attorney General Xavier Becerra talks to members of the media after he announced that he'd be filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the building of a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, during a news conference at Border Field State Park in San Diego on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2017. (Hayne Palmour IV/The San Diego Union-Tribune via AP)

With the U.S Mexican border in the background, California State Attorney General Xavier Becerra talks to members of the media after he announced that he'd be filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the building of a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, during a news conference at Border Field State Park in San Diego on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2017. (Hayne Palmour IV/The San Diego Union-Tribune via AP)

SAN DIEGO (AP) — California sued the Trump administration Wednesday to stop construction of a proposed wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, arguing the federal government is overstepping its authority by waiving environmental reviews and other laws.

Asked about the lawsuit at an appearance in San Diego, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he expects to prevail in legal challenges to the wall — one of the president’s key campaign pledges.

“The United States government has the control of that border and a responsibility to secure it,” he told reporters at a landing dock where he touted a record set by the Coast Guard for cocaine seizures.

The California lawsuit came as private contractors prepare to build eight prototypes for the wall in San Diego.

The administration “has once again ignored laws it doesn’t like in order to resuscitate a campaign talking point to build a wall on our southern border,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said while discussing the case at a news conference in a state park where a fence juts into the Pacific Ocean to separate the U.S. and Mexico.

In a letter to Homeland Security, California Gov. Jerry Brown said construction would “wreak havoc on an important and well-used commercial corridor.”

The lawsuit filed by Becerra, a Democrat, largely mirrors two others by environmental advocacy groups that allege the administration overstepped its authority to speed construction of the wall.

His complaint specifically addresses stretches of 15 miles (24 kilometers) in San Diego — where the administration will build the prototypes — and three miles (4.8 kilometers) in Calexico, California.

Aides to Becerra believe a victory in the lawsuit would apply to the entire border, stretching nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) through California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

At issue is a 2005 law that gave the Homeland Security secretary broad powers to waive dozens of laws for border barriers, including the National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Air Act and Endangered Species Act.

The Trump administration has issued two waivers since August, both in California. President George W. Bush’s administration issued the previous five waivers in 2008.

Legal challenges to border barriers have failed over the years amid concerns about national security. The Congressional Research Service said in a report this year for members of Congress that it saw no legal impediment to Trump’s proposed wall if deemed appropriate for controlling the border.

Becerra’s lawsuit — like one filed by the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and Animal Legal Defense Fund — contends the government’s power to waive the laws expired in 2008, when it met a congressional requirement for erecting fences on about one-third of the border.

The Center for Biological Diversity argues in its lawsuit that the 2005 law “cannot reasonably be interpreted to exempt compliance with the waived laws in perpetuity.”

Timothy Patterson, a supervising California deputy attorney general, said he expected the three lawsuits to be consolidated under one federal judge, possibly Gonzalo Curiel because he was assigned the earliest one.

Trump criticized Curiel during the campaign for his handling of lawsuits against now-defunct Trump University, suggesting the judge’s Mexican heritage carried a bias.

Becerra’s legal action is the latest in a series of lawsuits he has filed against the administration. He has sued over Trump’s decision to halt a program that protects young immigrants from deportation and has battled with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over regulations.

During his appearance in San Diego, Sessions also called attention to Coast Guard seizures of more than 227 tons of cocaine during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

In addition, he reiterated opposition to legalization of marijuana for recreational use — three months before pot sales are expected to begin in California.

Sessions said federal law prohibiting marijuana still applies.

“It doesn’t strike me that the country would be better if it’s being sold at every street corner,” he said.

___

Ronayne reported from Sacramento, California.</s>SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California's attorney general sued the Trump administration Wednesday over its plan to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, arguing it's overstepping its authority by waiving environmental reviews and other laws.

The suit filed by Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, makes arguments similar to those made in a lawsuit brought last week by advocacy groups.

Both lawsuits aim to stop design, planning and construction on the wall.

The cases are particularly focused on halting the construction of wall prototypes in San Diego and the replacement of barriers there and in Calexico, California.

Becerra plans to discuss the suit Wednesday near the border in San Diego, not far from the site where U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions discussed drug seizures earlier in the day.

Asked about the lawsuits, Sessions said the U.S. government has a responsibility to secure the border.

"We would expect to be fully successful in moving forward with our border wall as Congress gives us the money to do so," Sessions said.

Promises to construct a "big, beautiful" border wall served as a centerpiece of President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.

Becerra's legal action is the latest in a series of suits he has filed against the administration. He recently sued over Trump's decision to halt a program in six months that protects young immigrants from deportation. He also has battled with the federal Environmental Protection Agency over regulations.

The federal government recently waived environmental reviews on a 15-mile stretch of border in San Diego. Eight contracts have been awarded and construction of wall prototypes is expected to begin this fall.

The administration also waived environmental reviews involving a 3-mile stretch of border in Calexico. It granted the waivers under a 2005 law aimed at speeding construction of barriers along the border.

Becerra says that authority expired in 2008.

Laws waived include the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.</s>The State of California is suing to block President Donald Trump's plan to construct a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, the top lawyer for the state told reporters Tuesday.

The lawsuit set to be filed in federal court in San Diego will argue that the effort violates federal law and the Constitution by intruding on state authority, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said.

"They're violating the Tenth Amendment and infringing on a lot of state laws, not just federal laws, that effect our state. At the same time, they're trying to do something that only Congress can do," Becerra told journalists in Washington in advance of an official announcement he plans to make in San Diego Wednesday.

Becerra said the suit will argue that federal officials are running afoul of the law by declaring the expansion of the border wall to be an emergency that justifies waiving environmental studies and usual contracting procedures.

During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to create a border wall that the Mexican government would pay for. Mexican officials have flatly rejected contributing any funds to such a project. With most Democrats in Congress staunchly opposed to the idea, it's unclear how Trump will get money for construction.

Nevertheless, Trump administration officials are pressing forward with studies and prototypes. In recent weeks, the Department of Homeland Security awarded contracts to eight companies to produce prototypes of potential barriers. Half the awards were for concrete wall designs, while the others will explore use of other materials.

Becerra is set to announce the suit during a press conference at a state park near the border.

One of the Trump administration's most outspoken supporters of tougher measures at the border—Attorney General Jeff Sessions—is also set to be nearby a bit earlier on Wednesday to announce record drug seizures.</s>California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced a lawsuit on behalf of the state that would attempt to block any projects related to President Donald Trump's promised border wall between the U.S. and Mexico by deeming them unconstitutional.

The lawsuit, which is being filed in federal court, argues that the Trump administration has violated federal and state environmental laws, which it recently waived under an immigration provision in a 2005 law giving the Homeland Security secretary the power to do so.</s>San Francisco: California filed a lawsuit on Wednesday over the Trump administration`s plan to construct a wall along the border with Mexico, adding to the obstacles facing one of the Republican president`s key campaign promises.

President Donald Trump has insisted Mexico would pay for building the wall, which experts said could cost about $22 billion and take more than three years to complete.

With Mexico refusing to pay, Trump has said since taking office in January that the wall will initially need US funding but that he will find a way to make Mexico ultimately pay for it.

Democrats in the US Congress, however, firmly oppose the border wall, and at least some Democratic senators would need to vote for its inclusion in a spending package.

Democratic attorneys general including California`s Xavier Becerra have sued the Trump administration on a range of issues.

The border wall lawsuit filed in a San Diego federal court alleges that Trump`s wall violates federal environmental standards, as well as constitutional provisions regarding the separation of powers and states` rights.

Representatives for the US Justice Department declined to immediately comment on the case.

The lawsuit asks a judge to stop the administration from building the wall until it demonstrates compliance with environmental laws, and issue an order that the Department of Homeland Security cannot waive any federal guidelines in order to facilitate the project.

Last month the Trump administration said it had selected four construction companies to build concrete prototypes for a wall, which will be will be 30 feet (9 meters) tall and about 30 feet wide and will be tested in San Diego.</s>In its ongoing war with the president over immigration policy, California sued the Trump administration Wednesday over the planned border wall.

The lawsuit alleges that in its haste to build the “big, beautiful” wall that President Donald Trump promised during his campaign, the administration has failed to follow both state and federal environmental law. Lawyers involved in the lawsuit said they haven’t yet asked for an injunction that would block progress on the wall, including prototype construction in San Diego, until the court can hear the case, but they are keeping the option open.

After filing the 53-page complaint with the federal court’s Southern district on Wednesday morning, Attorney General Xavier Becerra headed to San Diego’s Border Field State Park, which already has two layers of fencing along the border, to make the announcement.

“No one gets to ignore the laws, not even the president of the United States,” said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. “In California, we make every effort to follow the rules.”

The Trump administration has said it would use a waiver to skip environmental reviews normally required for such projects. California’s lawsuit says the power to use the waiver expired at the end of 2008.

The lawsuit also questions whether such waivers are constitutional, arguing that the executive branch shouldn’t be able to ignore state laws.

“The border between the U.S. and Mexico spans some 2,000 miles,” Becerra said. “The list of laws violated by the president’s administration in order to build his campaign wall is almost as long.”

He said the administration would have to waive 37 federal statutes as well as numerous state and local laws to proceed with construction on its current schedule.

The California Coastal Commission, which has been around since 1972 and is charged with regulating construction in the state’s coastal regions, voted in August to ask Becerra to sue.

Steve Padilla, a Chula Vista councilman who was appointed to the commission earlier this year, said that California has a bipartisan history of protecting its coastal region. The commission should be allowed to review the border wall project before it proceeds, he said.

“There’s a whole set of standards that deal with environmental protection,” Padilla said. “In this case, they’re just being swept aside unnecessarily.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was also in San Diego on Wednesday, did not seem concerned by the lawsuit.

“In the United States anybody can sue,” Sessions said. “The United States of America has a border. The United States government has control of that border and a responsibility to secure it. We would expect to be fully successful in moving forward with our border wall as Congress gives us the money to do so.”

Peter Nunez, former U.S. attorney for the Southern district of California and board member for an immigration restrictionist think tank that has supported Trump’s immigration policies, said he doesn’t think California’s lawsuit will succeed in stopping the border wall. Environmental groups filed lawsuits over previous border fencing projects, he said.

“It’s the same old arguments,” Nunez said. “They ended up delaying the process but not ending it. We have a fence because all those arguments were found to be specious. This is open border advocates using environmental laws or anything else they can find to stop the process.”

Nunez believes the Trump administration is following the law.

“I’m sure the federal government is perfectly capable of understanding the law and following it without the attorney general of the state of California telling them what they’re required to do,” Nunez said.

California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher and San Diego City Councilman David Alvarez attended Becerra’s announcement in support of the lawsuit.

The San Diego City Council voted Tuesday to oppose the wall.

Alvarez said that San Diego has already been negatively affected by the existing fences along the border.

“Any future walls will have an impact on the environment and quality of life of San Diegans,” Alvarez said. “There is need for investments in our border relationship, but certainly not a wall.”

Environmental groups already have two other lawsuits pending over the proposed border wall. Lawyers from Becerra’s office anticipated that the court will consolidate the lawsuits before hearing them.

Follow me on Facebook for live updates about immigration news</s>California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra plans to announce a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of the state that will challenge President Trump’s proposal to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, a project Becerra has called “medieval.”

Becerra is scheduled to travel to Border Field State Park near San Diego to announce plans to sue over construction of border wall projects in San Diego and Imperial counties.

The state's lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration has failed to comply with federal and state environmental laws, relied on federal statutes that don't authorize the proposed projects and violated the U.S. Constitution's separation-of-powers doctrine.

The lawsuit also says the Department of Homeland Security decided to build the walls without complying with the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

As a result, the lawsuit alleges, the federal government lacks proper environmental analysis of the impact of 400-foot prototypes of the wall currently planned, as well as the 2,000-mile-long final wall.

The Democratic attorney general has been critical of the wall for months, including in April during an appearance on ABC's “This Week.”

“I’m still trying to figure out who believes that a medieval situation to fix our broken immigration system is what we need,” Becerra said.

He also accused Trump at the time of reneging on his promise to have Mexico pay for the wall.

“I think American taxpayers probably are very much aligned with Mexico. None of them, whether it's Mexico or our taxpayers, wants to pay for a medieval wall,” he said.

This is the latest of more than two dozen lawsuits and legal briefs filed against the Trump administration by Becerra, who was appointed attorney general in January and is running for election to the post next year. He previously sued to challenge Trump’s plans to end a program that protects young immigrants from deportation, ban immigration from some countries and roll back environmental laws.

Last week, three advocacy groups sued the federal government to block construction of a border wall, alleging that the Trump administration overstepped its authority by waiving environmental reviews and other laws.

The action by the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and Animal Legal Defense Fund seeks to prevent construction of wall prototypes in San Diego. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said last month that prototypes for a border wall may be completed by the end of October.

Becerra’s lawsuit is the latest attempt by California Democrats to fight the wall proposal. A bill that would have banned state government contracts for any company that helps build the wall passed the state Senate, but stalled recently in an Assembly committee.

Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) authored the bill, testifying at a committee hearing that "the wall is another attempt to separate and divide us. It sends a message that we are better off in a homogenous society."

Todd Bloomstine, a lobbyist representing the Southern California Contractors Assn., opposed the bill, asking the panel, "What next unpopular project would be [on the] blacklist?"</s>SACRAMENTO — California’s attorney general sued the Trump administration Wednesday over its plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, arguing it’s overstepping its authority by waiving environmental reviews and other laws.

The suit filed by Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, makes arguments similar to those in a lawsuit brought last week by advocacy groups.

Both lawsuits aim to stop design, planning and construction on the wall. The cases are focused on halting the construction of wall prototypes in San Diego and the replacement of barriers there and in Calexico, California.

“The Trump administration has once again ignored laws it doesn’t like in order to resuscitate a campaign talking point to build a wall on our southern border,” Becerra said at a press conference near the border in San Diego. “President Trump has yet to pivot from candidate Trump to leader of a nation built on the rule of law.”

Becerra’s remarks came shortly after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions appeared near the border to discuss drug seizures. Asked about the lawsuits, Sessions said the U.S. government has a responsibility to secure the border.

“We would expect to be fully successful in moving forward with our border wall as Congress gives us the money to do so,” Sessions said.

Promises to construct a “big, beautiful” border wall were a centerpiece of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Becerra’s legal action is the latest in a series of lawsuits against the administration. He recently sued over Trump’s decision to halt a program that protects young immigrants from deportation. He also has battled with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over regulations.

The federal government recently waived environmental reviews on a 15-mile stretch of border in San Diego. Eight contracts have been awarded and construction of wall prototypes is expected to begin this fall.

The administration also waived environmental reviews involving a 3-mile stretch of border in Calexico. It granted the waivers under a 2005 law aimed at speeding construction of barriers along the border.

The law allows the government to waive laws including the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Becerra says that authority expired in 2008.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra files suit in federal court against U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed plan for a wall along the U.S.–Mexico border.