Officials ignored warnings about Trump wall threat to endangered species

Emails reveal experts at San Bernardino national wildlife refuge repeatedly sounded the alarm over grave threat to rare species

Stark warnings by federal scientists and wildlife experts about the grave threat posed by Donald Trump's border wall to rare and endangered species were repeatedly ignored by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to documents seen by the Guardian.

A cache of emails obtained using the Freedom of Information Act (Foia) by environmental groups reveal multiple efforts over several months by experts at the San Bernardino national wildlife refuge in south-eastern Arizona, to save rare desert springs and crystalline streams which provide the only US habitat for the endangered endemic Rio Yaqui fish.