San Diego sues federal agencies over barbed wire fences on city land

from Deborah BrennanCalMatters

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

The city of San Diego is suing the federal government for building a barbed wire fence on city land near the Mexican border, arguing that the fence damages sensitive habitat and encroaches on city property.

The court casefiled in federal Southern District Court on Jan. 5, said the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, along with Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other federal officials. It alleges that US Marines illegally entered town land in December and built fences in the Marron Valley, east of Mount Otay.

The fences caused “irreparable harm to protected plant and wildlife habitat, riparian areas and vernal pools,” the city argued, saying the fence blocked city access to the site and jeopardized conservation programs designed to protect that habitat. The city is asking the court to stop the construction of fences and to declare the right of ownership and use of the land.

“The City of San Diego will not allow federal agencies to ignore the law and damage City property,” City Attorney Heather Furbert said in a statement. “We take decisive action to protect sensitive habitats, honor environmental commitments and ensure that our community’s rights and resources are respected.”

The Defense Department declined to comment, citing pending litigation. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to CalMatters’ questions, and neither agency has yet filed responses to the lawsuit.

The case represents a new front in California’s battle with the Trump administration over immigration enforcement and the role of federal power against state and local governments.

The loudest conflicts are over the use of the National Guard and active military in California cities. In December, a federal judge ordered the National Guard out of Los Angeles and return to the control of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Shortly thereafter, the Supreme Court blocked the deployment of the National Guard to Chicagoeffectively halting the administration’s appeals against California.

In this case, the battle is for wild lands instead of urban neighborhoods.

In a statement supporting the city’s lawsuit, the Sierra Club criticized the “expansion of militarized areas” without “adequate environmental review, oversight or coordination with landowners and conservation partners.”

“The reckless deployment of wire in Marron Valley is a clear abuse of power,” said Eric Meza, coordinator of the Sierra Club’s Borderlands Program. “We must not allow short-term political gimmicks to destroy the legacy of governance that belongs to us all.”

A photo of the scene shows a pile of barbed wire, also known as concertina wire, stretching across scrubland along the Mexican border. The city claims about a dozen U.S. Marines built the fence, cutting trails in conservation areas and leaving behind trash that included survey stakes, markers, discarded wooden pallets, unused wire and abandoned vehicles.

The city property is part of that of San Diego Multi-species conservation programa network of open space that protects 85 sensitive and endangered species. It is also part of a habitat plan between the city, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the US Fish and Wildlife Service called Agreement with the Bank for the protection of corner lands.

The case claims the wire fence prevents city staff from managing the site and damages sensitive riparian habitat and the songbirds that use it, such as the most endangered Bell’s vireo. It also harms vernal pools, a system of seasonal pools of water that host endangered fairy shrimp.

The complaint says federal agencies built the fence without city approval or even notice.

“At no time did the defendants seek or obtain the city’s consent to construct the border barrier in question,” the lawsuit states. “At no time did defendants give public notice or seek public comment regarding their intention to construct a border barrier on city property.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.