A Tall Border

Eco-laws pushed aside for faster building of border fence

Posted at 3:14 PM on 01 Apr 2008

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that it will waive environmental laws in order to finish its 670-mile-long fence along the U.S.-Mexico border by the end of 2008. The waivers will apply to land stretching from California to Texas and will facilitate construction of fencing, towers, sensors, cameras, and roads. Homeland Security has already issued waivers for three portions of fence in Arizona and California. Green activists, who have decried the fence's impact on endangered ocelots and fragile habitat, are dismayed. Says Brian Segee of Defenders of Wildlife, "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." But hey, other than that ...

sources: Los Angeles Times, Reuters, Associated Press, CNN International
see also, in Grist: Why environmental groups have been slow to fight the border wall

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Comments: (9 comments)

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What can we do?

How do we stop a wall when our imperial executive tosses aside the only laws that might stand in its way?

Do we send angry letters to Congress?

Do we lie down in front of the wall and get ourselves arrested?

In the near future, we can reform the INS so that people who immigrate have an easier time doing so legally; we can re-strengthen labor laws and extend them to foreign workers; and we can punish employers who break these laws, not the immigrants themselves. In this way, we can encourage immigrants to use ROADS rather than perilous deserts and people's farms.

In the more distant future, we can re-negotiate those horrible trade agreements, NAFTA and its progeny, which displaced so many workers in the first place. This is the only remedy that promises to reduce the rate of migration in all directions. We can also try to build international unions to improve working conditions on both sides of the border, though this is also a long-term project.

But in the immediate future, WHAT CAN WE DO TO STOP THIS STUPID WALL?

I feel like I'm living in Berlin in 1961! Ach, ich bin ein Berliner!

by JakobFabian01 at 8:31 PM on 01 Apr 2008

Reforesation project

Actually, we here at Carbonfund.org had been looking at supporting a reforestation project in that area, but held off because of the possibility that something like this would happen.

So in addition to damaging the ecology, it looks like Homeland Security is striking a blow against carbon sequestration as well.

Best,
- Russell
Carbonfund.org

by Russell Simon at 9:29 AM on 02 Apr 2008

Fine the employer on the earth!

I am a legal immigrant. I came to this country - from London, UK - 8 years ago.

I can see both sides of the debate to illegal immigrants. However, some pock-c wall is not going to help stop people from coming over.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, needs to set much higher fines for employer hiring immigrants for labour. I have seen so many street corners, in the morning (in Cali and Utah), where a big van drives up and picks up a few out of tens of illegal immigrant men to do labour work on housing/gardening constructions.

Putting up a wall, is taking money away from a current week economy, whereas fining employers would put money into the INS, and help people gain legal access to this land of the "brave and free".

However, I am sure that the current is too scared or dependented to ever go up against construction tycons. - Wimps!

I only have this one life, so I am going to try my very best to make a positive change. --- The Happy & Healthy Vegan ---

by javaearth at 10:27 AM on 02 Apr 2008

Congress

What especially shocks me about this disgusting story is the ease with which our Democratic-majority Congress approved of the waivers.

Building a wall on the southern border is not the way to work for long-term peace and justice. (The vile Lou Dobbs, of course, was delighted.)

And, we certainly make no moral progress, when once again we ignore or postpone the interests of wildlife. We have made no advance beyond the habitual attitude: Concern for wildlife may be well and good, but it should not cost anybody anything.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 12:15 PM on 02 Apr 2008

I want a solution to the border problem

What is wrong with putting vehicle barriers up, atleast, until they can decide more of what else can be done. It can't be any worse than the damage being caused by hundreds of people crossing borders every day. And it would help stop drug trafficing, and other smuggling activity, etc., which is causing much violence on the border. I agree that when I think about it, a fence seems rediculous. And I agree that fining the employers is definitely a necessary part of it, but I don't see how that will stop the drug smuggling that is going on. They do not care about employer fines. Also I agree we need to either fix NAFTA, or perhaps even get out of NAFTA totally.
I really think we need to focus also, on what is good for Mexico, IN Mexico. Those people come here because they can't make a living there. That was made worse by NAFTA. The Mexican government needs to work with the US government to help fix the problems of their county. They would of course, have to be determined to rid their country of its corruption and crime problems.

by jk6 at 9:01 PM on 02 Apr 2008

Thanks for the Wall Nafta

This is so medieval that it blows the modern mind. So much immigration is now a result of the Clinton era NAFTA push-through: US corps running to Mexico & central America, establishing, taking over millions of acres of land, wiping out the resource base then fleeing to China.

Result - the local population left landless and with nothing and worse than before NAFTA so what are they going do? Go north. Makes perfect sense and isn't in the least surprising. Now we're going to spend a few billion on some retarded, out-dated, soviet / china style wall...COME ON! Walls never, ever, ever work. This is just so dumb that I can only hold my hand on my head and sigh.

(And Clinton was Jesus compared with Bush...but he didn't get a free pass from me just because he was Dem or at least not Republican). Way to ruin our economies, cultures, and ecology guys!

Redneck Leftist Liberal: Latin, 'liber' Associated with liberty and the concept of freedom; tending in favor of freedom and democracy

by mtssea at 1:51 PM on 04 Apr 2008

Absolut Vodka

perhaps had it right the first time, before the humble apology:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/05/america/LA-GEN- ...

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 1:45 AM on 06 Apr 2008

Sabal Palm Nature Center

The uncertain fate of this Audubon center on the Mexican border in Brownsville, Texas, to which Sam Wells has referred in the past, is highlighted in this morning's NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/us/07land.html?hp

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 5:39 AM on 07 Apr 2008

our enlightened Congress again

More on the constitutional mess over this immoral border wall:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/us/08bar.html?hp=&a ...

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 4:20 AM on 08 Apr 2008

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