President Donald Trump's border wall stopped construction before it was finished — but not before damage was inflicted on the local ecology, critics say. Now a legal settlement is a boon for wildlife at the southern border.
The settlement, finalized Monday in federal court for the Northern District of California, ended four lawsuits filed against the Trump administration by a coalition of attorneys general from 18 states, including California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta.
The lawsuits alleged the Trump administration misappropriated taxpayer funds earmarked for other purposes to pay for the construction of the southern border wall. According to the terms of the settlement, the money will now go to a variety of environmental remediation efforts and a handful of military construction projects.
The settlement sets aside $1.1 million for monitoring endangered species along the border, including ocelots, jaguars, peninsular bighorn sheep, the Sonoran pronghorn and the Mexican gray wolf. It also sets forth plans for 20 small wildlife passages and four large wildlife passages to be built along the border barrier system to help protect the endangered species' ecosystem.
Additionally, it provides $25 million in funding from the Department of Homeland Security for the state of California to purchase a 1,291-acre parcel of land in the southwestern part of San Diego County. The property, dubbed Otay Ranch Village 14, is environmentally sensitive and would be preserved for conservation, according to the agreement.
Finally, the settlement reallocates about $427.3 million toward other military construction projects, including a $13-million military flight simulator at Southern California's Channel Islands Air National Guard Station.
"With environmental mitigation projects coming online to protect our sensitive ecosystem along the U.S.-Mexico border and the confirmation of over $427 million in funding restored for military construction projects, today's settlement ushers in a new beginning," Bonta said in a statement.
