Forcing Environmental Analysis of Policies That Increase Immigration

A new episode of the Center for Immigration Studies podcast features Director of Litigation Julie Axelrod discussing the current status of the Center’s landmark National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) lawsuit, a new CIS case filed in Texas, and the recent “Alligator Alcatraz” litigation.

Axelrod explains how the Trump administration is handling the remedy phase of Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform v. Department of Homeland Security, where CIS successfully argued that the Biden administration violated NEPA when it dismantled border controls allowing in millions of people without doing any environmental impact analysis. NEPA, enacted in 1970, was intended to address environmental impacts of population growth – yet it has rarely been applied to immigration, despite its obvious relevance.

Axelrod argues that applying NEPA consistently would protect the environment, provide transparency, and serve as an insurance policy to prevent future administrations from bypassing environmental review when expanding immigration.

Highlights from the discussion with the Center’s Executive Director Mark Krikorian include:

• CIS’s Successful Lawsuit: The court found that the Biden administration had violated NEPA. The remedy phase could force DHS to conduct the environmental analysis that should have preceded both the Biden DHS’s termination of the “Remain in Mexico” policy and halt in construction of the border wall, and/or could ensure that if a future administration repeats such actions, it would have to do environmental analysis, providing transparency and an opportunity for public input.
• Trump Administration on the Remedy: The Trump administration’s immigration agenda, which largely focuses on reduction, not expansion, of immigration, would not be blocked if the administration were to embrace the idea that increases in immigration should be analyzed under NEPA prior to implementation. Such an embrace would also serve to make the Trump immigration agenda harder for a future administration to undo, as the Biden administration did to the first Trump administration’s policies. Furthermore, as the Alligator Alcatraz case shows, whether the Trump administration embraces NEPA for immigration expansion or not, open-borders groups will continue challenging enforcement actions in court under NEPA.
• New Texas Lawsuit: A coalition of Texas plaintiffs seeks to apply NEPA to Biden-era policies, including the end of “Remain in Mexico,” expansive asylum rules, regulatory expansions to our work programs, and taxpayer-funded NGO programs.
• Alligator Alcatraz Case: Anti-enforcement groups are trying to use NEPA to block expansion of the Florida detention facility, highlighting a double standard – enforcement actions designed to reduce illegal immigration trigger environmental analysis, but policies that increase immigration do not (yet).

Host 

Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

Guest

Julie Axelrod is the Director of Litigation at the Center for Immigration Studies.

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Intro Montage

Voices in the opening montage:

• Sen. Barack Obama at a 2005 press conference.
• Sen. John McCain in a 2010 election ad.
• President Lyndon Johnson, upon signing the 1965 Immigration Act.
• Booker T. Washington, reading in 1908 from his 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech.
• Laraine Newman as a "Conehead" on SNL in 1977.
• Hillary Clinton in a 2003 radio interview.
• Cesar Chavez in a 1974 interview.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking to reporters in 2019.
• Prof. George Borjas in a 2016 C-SPAN appearance.
• Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008 comments on the Senate floor.
• Candidate Trump in 2015 campaign speech.
• Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes".