7 new miles of border wall are pretty much done, stretching out from either side of the Sasabe port of entry. Off in the distance (not pictured) can see the ends of the wall on either side of town – meaning that just going around it should be pretty trivial. The wall and all the other new sections are just a boondoggle so that the Department of Homeland Security can pretend like they’re increasing security, while funnelling money into the corporations that are building it, meanwhile irreparably damaging the environment and disrupting wildlife migration patterns.
UPDATE: Hundreds of miles of new wall have been built in 2006-2009, although slightly less than the 700 miles mandated by Congress by the Secure Fence Act in 2006.
January 23, 2009 at 5:57 pm
BALONEY!!
The best thing in the world for the environment and area wildlife is a border wall. The lands along the border have been TRASHED by people illegally entering. Talk about disrupting the wildlife! …Talk about POISONING their environment and their food supply.
Only a city slicker would think that a small section of wall seriously disrupts wildlife migration. The REAL disruption occurs with all the people tromping through.
Frankly, I’m fed up with faux environmentalists like you!
January 24, 2009 at 3:47 pm
if we hadn’t dispersed migrants into the deserts by closing off el paso and san diego, our protected areas wouldn’t be trashed at all. increasing la migra hasn’t deterred immigration but it has moved it’s path. arizona’s southern border is about 85% public land, meaning that it’s somewhat easy to cross by migrants, and entirely easy for the government to butcher in the name of security.
January 25, 2009 at 5:51 am
cactus_wren, sorry but you sound like you don’t know what you’re talking about. You might want to change your username to cactus parrot, because you’re just repeating all the standard dumb points that the Department of Homeland Security keeps saying along with anti-immigrants like lou dobbs and o’reilly. I’ve talked to many experts about this and the Sierra Club hired me to make a film about it, which I would invite you to watch and learn from:
arizona.sierraclub.org/border/borderfilm.asp
January 25, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Sorry, but as a decades long hiker and outdoors person, I do know what I’m speaking about.
Over the years I have watched with horror the degradation caused by thousands upon thousands of those entering the US illegally: Tromping through the land, creating new trails and leaving their trash and body waste behind.
I have witnessed countless birds and mammals picking through tuna cans, trying out pills left behind, eating whatever looks like it "might" be tasty. When bears and mountain lions learn that backpacks contain food – what happens? Who pays the price? We both know who does… the bears and the mountain lions.
I’ve seen the streams and water holes spoiled with trash. Water bottles, candy wrappers, "uppers" and God knows what other types of controlled substances, can be found everywhere along these wildcat trails, if you just bother to look.
There are hillsides where illegal aliens haven’t bothered to follow their own unauthorized trails – they just bushwhack down – the erosion is plainly seen and it continues to grow.
Where the human traffic hasn’t spoiled the land, the drug traffickers have. Their ATV tracks have scarred the borderlands. They don’t care.
I suspect you really haven’t seen much of what I describe, because no one who truly cares about the environment could condone it. No one who is TRULY concerned. The Sierra Club falls into the other category – those who are not truly concerned.
Over the years I have personally hauled several tons of illegal alien trash to the dump. For all the times I have done clean up, I have never seen Sierra Club participants.
Years ago I thought about joining the Sierra Club. Somehow I got on one of their mailing lists. You wouldn’t believe how many glossy fliers I got… all saying "Send The Sierra Club More Money!!".
The Sierra Club has some pretty swanky offices in San Francisco.
Their higher-ups are handsomely paid.
They put out pretty fliers.
They pay people like you to make videos.
They hire high-priced Washington lobbyists.
They do a lot of advertising.
That’s where large chunks of the money people donate is spent.
Someone like me wonders why the Sierra Club can’t afford a few trashbags or the time to actually clean up the mess the illegals leave.
If you can’t smell the hypocracy of tthe Sierra Club – espousing concern for the wildlife and the environment along the border, but turning a blind eye to the degradation caused and the trash left behind by those entering illegally – then there is something extremely wrong with your sniffer. The stench is there.
We both know why the Sierra Club turns a blind eye, don’t we?
A major benefactor told them – "You want more $$ from me? Then you pretend that hundreds of thousands of people illegally entering and trashing the borderlands is of no concern."
The Sierra Club took his 30 pieces of silver.
I don’t watch much television – I have better things to do. Sure, I know who Lou Dobbs and Bill O’Reilly are, and occasionally (MAYBE once a month, IF THAT) I’ve watched their shows (but I couldn’t tell you what channel they’re on) – just as I occasionally watch other shows.
My viewpoint on this is based entirely on what I have observed with my own eyes.
Furthermore, I am not "anti-immigrant". Not in the least. Your accusation is dead wrong.
Your "Update" is also glaringly wrong.
There are not 500+ miles of "wall".
There are less than 200 miles of that type of barrier, concentrated in populated areas. You don’t find too many deer on Main Street. You’ll find even fewer bighorn sheep or jaguars.
Wildlife is also amazingly adept at finding entrances and exits. They can and do easily travel miles to find them. I’m amazed at how adaptable they are. They aren’t nearly as stupid or weak as you seem to think.
The vast majority of "fence" is a Normany style barricade.
Normandy fencing stops vehicles, but not humans, and not wildlife.
Do you know what a Normany style barricade is???
It does not stop wildlife.
Am I to believe this was an uneducated mistake on your part?
There are three major differences between you and me:
1) I actually understand what’s happening to the animals and the environment along the borderr as I have spent years observing both the stress and the cause.
2) I put hard labor into trying to mitigate the stress.
3) Unlike you, I haven’t been bought and paid for.
January 27, 2009 at 9:55 am
Hi again, Cactus Wren,
Look, I appreciate that you seem to care very deeply for the environment, but I invite you to look at the bigger picture and not simply the trails and garbage piles that you’ve seen with your own eyes. Talk to scientists and experts too and you might start to understand the bigger picture. For instance, even the vehicle barriers and in fact construction of border patrol roads do immense damage to the landscape, vegetation, and habitat. (Plus, you may not have seen some of the new wall I’m talking about. Go out to, for example, the Imperial Dunes and the entire area between Calexico and Yuma, or between Naco and Douglas, or between El Paso and Fort Hancock – those are many many miles of completely pedestrian-fenced, non-urban border, NOT vehicle barrier.)
I won’t defend against your rant about the Sierra Club, as I don’t represent them and I certainly understand your frustration with big environmental groups.
It’s interesting that you make a big deal about vehicle barrier versus pedestrian wall, saying that it doesn’t stop wildlife but you clearly are advocating for wall, and lots of it. But even pedestrian fencing won’t stop people. The only thing it will stop is wildlife.
Furthermore, the even more important thing to understand is that the border wall or fence, or border militarization in general, is just a band-aid. Just as picking up trash is only a temporary fix since more trash will be left later, building security infrastructure, whatever the type, and hiring more agents and even if we got to the point of planting landmines, none of that will work, and it is just treating the symptom and not the cause. And I mean the root cause, not the cause you seem to be referring to in your last comment – migrants walking around in the desert is not the cause, it’s an effect. The root cause is U.S. foreign policy and trade policy. The reason those migrants are out there in the wilderness is because the U.S. made it harder for them to cross in the cities. And the reason they want to cross at all is because NAFTA and other U.S. trade policies have ruined their way of life. For instance, NAFTA took away Mexican subsidies for Mexican farmers, but did not remove agricultural subsidies for U.S. ag products, which meant they could be sold in Mexico for cheaper than Mexican crops. So Mexico, a society based on corn for centuries, is importing corn from us. Kind of crazy, no? Millions of Mexican farmers who have grown corn for generations cannot support themselves anymore. Their choice is to let their families starve, join the narcotraffickers, or come north to work in the U.S. And they will keep coming and find a way to get in as long as that is their situation, no matter how many walls we put up. And with CAFTA and other trade agreements, the number of affected peoples is growing, and so the migration northward will increase.
We need to work to fix the root causes, not just put band-aids on the effects, band-aids that don’t work and cause further harm.
February 18, 2009 at 8:07 pm
yo i think this here is the stupidest shit ever who ever thought these piece of shit borders would stop all the mexicans from coming, is fukken retarded!!!!!…shit…. vayanse ala verga pinche bola d pendejos pinchis gringos pendejos no valen pa verga neta k vayan a chingar a toda su puta madre!!!! k no..? jodanse pinchi bola d jotos no saben aser nada mas k verga ojala les tumben ese pinchi cerco cagado neta y d paso k le caiga ensima a algun gringo pendejo y lo mate ala verga y entren todos los mojados k kieran jajajajajaj k c jodan los gringos
viva mexico cabrones!!! k no…? jajaja
December 20, 2009 at 9:36 pm
The fence at Sasabe is finished, border crossings over the barded wire fence next to the border station have stopped, and with the weak economy some crossing volume has tapered off. This very expensive and somewhat useless fence has cost a huge amount of money-which could have been better spent IN SASABE Mexico for a new school. No matter, they’re still coming up from Altar by truck and vanloads, and they’ve even devised an automated bridge that extends hydraulically over the fence. When people need work and more than a dollar a day income. they will go were those jobs are.
April 26, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Cactus_wren, you are so right in your assessment of what thousands of people can do to an environment over years of trampling through it. But there is a reason why this situation exists, and it’s not the fault of those doing the trampling, believe me. I live in Arivaca, perhaps you’ve heard of it? I’ve been to Sasabe many times and like to hike in the Buenos Aires National Refuge, and I’ve seen what traffic can do in places like the Mustang Trail area. I’ve also seen the totally insane, paranoid, unthinking gringos that have made the laws and are trying to make them even worse. I have to put up with the thousands of Border Patrol that are part of Arivaca life, their cars, trucks, vans, and helicopters. I’ll take an illegal Mexican family any day. That’s where you will find the family values that are so touted by Right Wing ass holes, which I hope you are not one of–for your own sake.