The Government Knows Better

While Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary
Michael Chertoff and other federal bureaucrats have repeatedly insisted that
they are considering environmental concerns as they move forward with fence
construction, their claims are demonstrably false. In the case of one
particular section of fence in the San Pedro National Riparian Conservation
Area (SPRNCA), the federal government was advised by its own scientists and
land managers that damage to the hydrology and ecology of the San Pedro River
would be extensive and serious; yet, DHS invoked the Real ID waiver and moved
ahead with construction anyway, while suppressing dissenting opinions and
analysis. Another version of this dynamic played out in the Buenos Aires
National Wildlife Refuge, where—knowing that the threat of the waiver loomed over
them and they were powerless to resist—refuge managers simply ceded control of
the border acreage in question to DHS, rather than pretend that border
enforcement activities would be in any way compatible with the mission of the
refuge. Not only is the federal government refusing to consider the
environmental impacts and other consequences of their failed policy, they are
actively working to silence any dissent. In the absence of democratic processes
allowing for public and stakeholder input into decisions on immigration control
and enforcement, processes that have been proven to work over decades of
implementation, the chances of emerging with a carefully constructed, rational
policy are near zero. What we are likely to get instead is yet another federal
boondoggle that wastes billions of taxpayer dollars and squanders the natural
heritage of our beautiful and diverse southwest.