Washington D.C. – Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) issued the following statement on the news that President Trump’s Department of the Interior will transfer 560 acres of federally protected public lands to the U.S. Army for the construction of 70 miles of Trump’s unpopular border wall, paid for with taxpayer money. Grijalva recently released a video with exclusive footage of border wall construction in Arizona and interviews with residents.

“The Trump administration has treated our border with Mexico like a testing ground for dangerous, extremist ideas from day one, and now we see public lands being handed over to the military using the same national security excuse they always hide behind. This sends a message to the world that we are a fearful country with no sense of responsibility or proportion. The Army doesn’t have the authority to enforce domestic laws, and anyone who believes in protecting our legal system should oppose this move and Trump’s border wall with everything they can muster.”

The transfers include more than 300 acres of land in Yuma County, Ariz., some of which is in Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Rep. Grijalva’s district. Land transfers also include 110 acres in the El Paso, Texas, area and 43 acres in San Diego County in California.

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