Plaintiffs prepare to appeal the case before the U.S. Supreme Court
El Paso County Attorney José R. Rodríguez announced today that U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo has dismissed a lawsuit filed by El Paso County, the City of El Paso, the El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1, and the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, among others, against the construction of the border fence in El Paso County.
Judge Montalvo granted the Department of Homeland Security’s motion to dismiss based on the merits of the case on a final judgment issued on September 11th, 2008. In his ruling, Judge Montalvo held that the waivers used by the Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff to expedite the construction of the border fence were constitutional because “…Congress constitutionally delegated its authority in the Waiver Legislation.” Judge Montalvo further ruled that the Waiver legislation did not violate the 10th amendment because the waivers were issued with the intent to “preempt state and local laws, which would interfere with Congress’s objective to expeditiously construct the border fence.”
El Paso County Attorney José R. Rodríguez explained that, according to the law, the plaintiffs have 90 days to file an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court. The law firm Mayer Brown LLP of Washington D.C., who is handling the litigation, is already working on the appeal, which the County Attorney will encourage El Paso Commissioner’s Court to join.
The lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security was filed on June 23, 2008, and challenged Secretary Chertoff's statutory authority to issue a waiver of more than 30 federal laws, as well as any state and local laws related to such federal laws, to accelerate the construction of a border fence in El Paso County. # # #
Border Fence Lawsuit Dismissed Press Release.pdf
Border Fence Case Motion to Dismiss.pdf
Border Fence Case Final Judgement.pdf
About edominguez
Elhiu Dominguez was born in Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, México. He moved to the Ciudad Juárez - El Paso area in 1988 to study Mass Communications at the Chihuahua State University (UACH). He later obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Texas at El Paso in 1994.
Elhiu began his professional career in 1989 as a reporter for Norte de Juarez newspaper. In 1994 he was employed at Canal 26, the local Univision affiliate in El Paso, as photojournalist, producer, and later as a reporter. In 1998, after a brief period as Weekend Assignments Editor at KDBC Channel 4, the local CBS affiliate, Elhiu returned to work at Univision 26 as a senior reporter. He was later assigned in 1999 as the Texas-New Mexico correspondent for the Univision Network’s news magazine “Primer Impacto”, a position that he held until his resignation in 2005 to become Assignments Editor at KFOX Channel 14, the local FOX network affiliate.
Elhiu left KFOX in 2006 to become the Public Affairs Officer for the El Paso County Attorney’s Office.
During his more than 15 years of experience as journalist, Elhiu has received numerous awards, among them “La Columna de Oro” for a special series of stories regarding the murders of women in Juárez, and several first and second place awards by the New Mexico and Texas Associated Press in the categories of investigative reporting, breaking news, and feature stories.