California Suing Over Trump's Planned Border Wall

The state of California is suing the Trump administration over President Trump's plans to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced plans for the lawsuit on Wednesday morning, standing steps from the border in Border Field State Park, 15 miles south of San Diego.

"No one gets to ignore the law, not even the president of the United States," Becerra said. "The border between the U.S. and Mexico spans some 2,000 miles. The list of laws violated by the president's administration in order to build his campaign wall is almost as long."

The California Coastal Commission is also a plaintiff on the lawsuit, which alleges that the Trump administration has failed to comply with federal and state environmental laws, particularly the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The suit also alleges that the administration's plans for the wall have violated the U.S. Constitution's separation-of-powers doctrine "by vesting in the Executive Branch the power to waive state and local laws, including state criminal law," according to the L.A. Times. Becerra also stated during the press conference that the administration's plans for the wall are in violation of the Tenth Amendment, which states "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

"In California, that's not going to fly," Becerra said.

Becerra, who took office in January, has filed dozens of lawsuits and briefs against the administration, including a legal challenge on the DACA repeal.

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security announced that they had selected the initial vendors to build prototypes of the promised wall. Models of the competing proposals will be built in Otay Mesa, in southern San Diego.