MONTREAL— Conservation groups filed a petition today asking the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s Commission on Environmental Cooperation to investigate a railway project in the Mexican state of Sonora. The petition cites concerns over the fragmentation of jaguar habitat and the project’s passage through a wildlife reserve.

Today’s petition, the first filed before the commission under Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration, urges the international body to investigate and develop a formal “factual record” on Mexico’s failures. Under the USCMA, the United States, Mexico and Canada agreed that “no Party shall fail to effectively enforce its environmental laws.” The commission was established to assess enforcement of environmental laws across the three nations.

The Mexican government moved forward with the railway project for more than a year without required environmental permits. The train line goes through the municipalities of Imuris, Santa Cruz and Nogales. It fragments the Sierra Azul-El Pinito jaguar corridor and cuts through the Rancho el Aribabi reserve.

“The Mexican government is breaking its own laws with this destructive railway, and a commission investigation could ensure that vital jaguar habitat is protected,” said Alejandro Olivera, senior scientist and Mexico representative at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The train line didn’t even get approval until more than a year after construction started and Sonora’s wild lands had already suffered enormous damage. We need USMCA action on Mexico’s negligence, which threatens our delicate borderlands and the very existence of endangered animals like the jaguar and Sonoran mud turtle. President Sheinbaum needs to stop this project to prevent further environmental devastation.”

Imperiled jaguars seen in the United States are typically young males seeking new territory, dispersing northward from established populations in Mexico. The railway project, in combination with the border wall, poses a significant obstacle and danger for jaguars attempting to cross the border. The project also threatens the habitat of other animals, including ocelots, black bears and the Sonoran mud turtle, a species found nowhere else on Earth.

The stated purpose of the railway was to relocate the Nogales railway border crossing at the U.S.-Mexico border, but the 72-kilometer project now circumvents the entire city of Nogales. The United States was initially involved, but then retracted its participation and decided against the border crossing relocation. Mexico had already started construction on the railway and resolved to continue the project and circumvent Nogales.

Mexico’s environment secretariat granted the environmental approval for the railway in August. Construction had begun in September 2023 and extensive deforestation had already occurred. The initial phase of the project was built under a provisional authorization, even though Mexico’s Supreme Court declared that legal mechanism invalid in 2022.