Environmental Damage is Feds’ Fault

In assessing the current rush to fence off the U.S. border with Mexico, it is important to recall how we got to this moment in political time. The damage that is occurring in rural and wild areas along the border is a direct result of a federal strategy that was inaugurated over a decade ago. In the mid-90s, under increasing political pressure to control undocumented migrant traffic, federal agencies began implementing a policy that was focused on beefing up security around ports of entry and traditional migrant trails, thereby forcing undocumented immigrants to cross in more remote areas. The logic behind such a policy, other than the desire to project the illusion of control to satisfy political objectives, was that such rigorous and dangerous routes would deter undocumented immigrants from even making the attempt to cross. This logic has now proven to be utterly false, as immigrants kept coming, with predictable and tragic results. Thousands have died in the attempt to cross remote desert and mountainous areas. The crackdown has led to a highly lucrative and now violent immigrant smuggling trade. And new routes through sensitive areas, along with the enforcement activities that have followed, have resulted in major disruptions to rural quality of life and fragile ecosystems along the border. The fence, offered as the next desperate stop-gap, is a direct result of this failed policy. Regardless of whether this next narrowly conceived, short-sighted boondoggle will work (a dubious proposition at best), the blame for the trashing and slashing of our southwestern environment can be laid squarely at the feet of the federal government.