[JURIST] Several conservation groups on Monday filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] against the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accusing the agency of violating environmental law by neglecting the effects of unregulated immigration. The plaintiffs include public interest groups across the nation such as the Scientists and Environmentalists for Population Stabilization (SEPS) and the Floridians for a Sustainable Population (FSP) [advocacy websites]. The complaint, filed through the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) [advocacy website], states that all government agencies are required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) [text, PDF] to consider, analyze and publicize the possible environmental impact of their actions. The complaint then alleges that the DHS has ignored this federal obligation by not assessing the environmental effects of population destabilization created by uncontrolled legal and illegal immigration. It is further alleged that the DHS’s adopted NEPA procedures are arbitrary and capricious and therefore violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) [materials]. The plaintiffs specifically reference [Daily Caller report] 32 of the DHS’s agency actions and request that the US District Court for the Southern District of California [official website] acknowledge the DHS’s violations and grant injunction.

US immigration law [JURIST backgrounder] continues to be a controversial and heavily politicized area of law at both the state and federal levels. Earlier this month the US Supreme Court [official website] denied a petition to rehear United States v. Texas [SCOTUSblog materials], further stalling implementation of the Obama administration’s immigration policy. In November 2014 a judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona [official website] struck down [JURIST report] an Arizona law that made smuggling immigrants a state crime because it conflicts with federal laws governing immigration. In August 2013 the Obama administration released [JURIST report] a policy directive known as the “Family Interest Directive,” emphasizing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents should apply “prosecutorial discretion” towards undocumented immigrant parents of minors to limit detaining parents and to safeguard their parental rights. In June 2013 the US Senate approved [JURIST report] a bill which would create new pathways to US citizenship for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in the US. That bill was subsequently not approved by the House.