 |
|
|
 Editorials | Opinions | November 2007 
Border Work Accelerates as Legal Queries, Critics Mount
 Tucson Citizen
go to original
 |  | In all over the past year, nearly 200 miles of fencing has been erected along our 2,000-mile border with Mexico. |  | |
After years of delay, border fences now are being thrown up at a rapid clip - far too quickly to protect wildlife, waterways and fragile lands.
Something must be done to slow the dizzying pace of fence-building in fragile and federally protected lands - a pace set by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Chertoff thrice has waived federal laws to accommodate his need for breakneck speed with fencing.
In southern Arizona, he has pushed for construction even in federally protected areas: the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area as well as the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge.
Earlier this month, a lawsuit by environmental groups was updated to focus on the heart of the issue - the constitutionality of the congressional act that lets Chertoff waive federal laws.
The REAL ID Act of 2005, enacted to counter terrorism, contains a provision that lets Homeland Security waive laws that interfere with building border barriers.
Albeit well-intentioned, the act enabled Chertoff to ignore clean air, clean water and more than a dozen other federal laws to barge forward with fencing in the San Pedro.
In all over the past year, nearly 200 miles of fencing has been erected along our 2,000-mile border with Mexico.
Yet no in-depth, expert analysis have been undertaken to determine whether the fencing will be effective, much less whether it will irreparably harm the area's ecology by disrupting wildlife migration patterns and river flows, for example.
Chertoff's zeal for fencing doesn't mean border security is improved.
Smugglers who encounter vehicle barriers have been found to simply station trucks on both sides of the border, so passengers can disembark on the Mexican side, walk around the barrier and board the other truck.
Drug and people smugglers thwarted by fencing also have burrowed many tunnels under the border.
If the fencing Chertoff favors is not going to impede illegal immigration but is going to cause harm in areas already designated for federal protections, then the program is seriously flawed.
That well may prove to be the case with the San Pedro fencing, which prompted the lawsuit by Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club.
There are good reasons for our many federal environmental laws and mandates for studies, public hearings and public comment periods.
Arizonans have legitimate concerns over what may result as Chertoff waives these federal requirements while waving bulldozers onto some of our most special sites.
letters@tucsoncitizen.com |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us