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Homeland Security announced today that they will waive federal environmental laws in order to finish building 670 miles of border fence by the end of the year. Needless to say, the 2 waivers are highly controversial with environmentalist and border communities who are concerned about the damage to the land and wildlife.
Brian Segee, an attorney with Defenders of Wildlife, said, “It’s dangerous, it’s arrogant, it’s going to have pronounced environmental impacts and it won’t do a thing to address the problems of undocumented immigrants or address border security problems. It’s an incredibly simplistic and ineffective approach to complex problems.”
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has called the waivers a last resort, and department officials say the agency is committed to minimizing the impacts to the environment and wildlife and that many of the 470 miles have already undergone environmental review.
“If that was true, the waivers wouldn’t be necessary,” Segee countered. I completely agree.
The Republicans, however, are thrilled. “It’s great. This is the priority area where most of the illegal activity is going on and where most of the deaths are occurring,” said Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-Solana Beach), chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus. “The quicker we can get the physical fence up, the sooner we’ll avoid situations like the deaths of agents. And it’s still a national security issue. You just have to stop this kind of open traffic along the border.”
Yeah, because Mexicans are causing so much trouble in our country. And I’m sorry, did he just say that the lives of Americans were more important that the lives of Mexicans? That’s what it sounded like to me. Anyway, putting up a fence only where most of the traffic is coming through won’t help at all. What’s to stop them from coming across somewhere else? And what about the land and wildlife such as the ocelot, whose mating habits may be affected?
I guess they’ll do whatever it takes to stop the illegal immigrants, even if it means destroying the environment.
