New pedestrian and vehicle barriers are being proposed for Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument's border with Mexico/U.S. Customs and Border Protection
New pedestrian and vehicle barriers are being proposed to run nearly the entire length of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument's border with Mexico, a project the Sierra Club claims will harm the ecosystem and be visually unappealing to park visitors.
Southern border parks such as Organ Pipe Cactus, Big Bend, and Coronado National Memorial long have been thrust into the news by threats posed by drug runners and undocumented immigrants. Though Organ Pipe Cactus is one of the park system’s oldest national monuments, for more than a decade earlier in this century it was forbidden for backcountry travel due to the 2002 murder of Ranger Kris Eggle, who was shot while chasing a Mexican gunman said to be trying to execute a $15,000 murder contract on a rival drug lord.
In the wake of the ranger’s death, heavy lobbying convinced Congress to provide $18 million to build a vehicle barrier along the US-Mexico border. Officials say it succeeded in ending illegal vehicular border crossings while allowing wildlife to pass through.
The travel of upwards of 1,000 undocumented immigrants a day led the Fraternal Order of Police to declare Organ Pipe the country's most dangerous park for a time early in this century. Indeed, at one point 95 percent of the park was closed to the traveling public because of the danger posed by this traffic.
But in 2014, the entire park was reopened after the National Park Service and Border Patrol conceived a plan to allow continued surveillance by the Patrol while Park Service crews erased hundreds of miles of illegal roads and road traces that had been woven through Organ Pipe Cactus.
Now the U.S. Customs and Border Protection is proposing to construct a total of 63 miles of new bollard wall in place of dilapidated and outdated designs in Pima and Cochise counties. The project also includes road construction and improvement and lighting installation. The proposed design of the new bollard wall includes 18-to-30 foot, concrete-filled steel bollards that are approximately 6” x 6” in diameter.
The proposal, open for public comment through July 5, quickly drew criticism from Dan Mills, with Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter Borderlands Program.
“The communities, landscapes and waterways of the borderlands region drive local recreation economies, sustain natural systems, and support millions of people in the Southwest and beyond. There is overwhelming proof that border walls do not protect these resources - they only do them harm," he said. “Destroying land and constructing more walls through these delicate landscapes and waters will further harm endangered species like the Sonoran pronghorn and Mexican gray wolf, at a time when the world faces mass extinctions. Building blockages through wildlife corridors means the jaguar could again disappear from the United States."
Comments and information will be accepted until Friday, July 5, by email at [email protected] or mailed to:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
U.S. Border Patrol Headquarters
1300 Pennsylvania Ave. 6.5E Mail Stop 1039
Washington, DC 20229-1100
Comments
I sincerely doubt the damage to the ecosystem by halting casual wildlife movements can much that of the much larger human horde tracking through littering up the place. THAT disrupts wildlife, too. Figure out how much large wildlife (small ones will be fine) movement actually takes place, as well as its necessity, and it might be worthwhile making a "gate" of some kind, fully guarded by cameras to prefent two-legged intruders.
Better adjust your target a bit, snochasr. If assylum seekers were not turned away at the borders, but instead processed humanely, fewer folks would be following coyotes through the parkland.
In the 1970s while a collage student, I enjoyed camping and hiking in Organ Pipe National Monument very much. The entire park was a pristine desert environment with the beautiful and unique Organ Pipe cacti and a huge variety of deset plants and animals. While hiking and camping, my main concerns were snakes or tarantulas. It is interesting to me that I have never read were Organ Pipe National Mnument was a place enjoyed by campers and hikers. Is that because no one cares what the park usued to be like - before the ravages of people just walking into the park from south of the border? When visiting the park now, the least of amy worries is snakes or tarantulas. My worry now is being shot or accosted and beaten up by those walking across the boarder attemting to steal my food and water. In the 1970s the scenario of walking across the boarder was unthinkable because the desert terrain was harsch due to the heat and lack of water. Now, bulletts and violence are the problem. People walking across the boarder have NO concern for the pristine deserrt envirnment they are trampling! As an environmentalist myself, birds and animals and all things living in this desert environment will carry on with or without a wall at the boarder, as they have done throughout millenia. The snakes and tarantulas can crawl though the slatted fence wall. Please build a wall along the boarder to keep people from walking into Arizona from the south and continuing to destroy Organ Pipe National Monument. As an environmentalist, I am most concerded about preserving the park and making sure the environment is returned to the pristine and SAFE condition it was in in the 1970s.
And if tellers just turned over the cash, there would be fewer bank robberies.
So now you compare assylum seekers to bank robbers, like your President's racist anti-brown menace drivel. It is legal to seek assylum. The idea of sending assylum seekers back to the nation where they are persecuted is just a cruel sadism.
let us not confuse border-jumpers who claim asylum with plain ordinary border-jumpers. Over 90% of asylum claims are found to be false, but because of "catch and release" they get to stay anyway. And legitimate asylum seekers know all they have to do is present at a port of entry. The border needs to be fenced off, illegals routed to ports of entry, and asylum claims adjudicated BEFORE someone is allowed across the border. Oh, and the idea that "it is legal to seek asylum"? By international law, it must be sought in the adjacent country, which for Central Americans is Mexico, not the US.
And it should be beside the point. The immigration problem is and must be separated from environmentalists' obstruction. The environment should be considered where possible, but carefully weighed against what is now the much larger illegal immigration emergency.
Rick - the vast majority of people entering this country illegally are not asylum seekers. Over half the illegal immigrants in this country are from Mexico which is not persecuting anyone and the rest if it is asylum they are seeking they should follow the UN protocol and seek it in the neighboring country. They don't because it isn't asylum they are seeking.
"Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien's status, may apply for asylum in accordance with this section or, where applicable, section 1225(b) of this title." -U.S. Code (Title 8, Sec. 1158)
If the administration doesn't like the law, they can always work with Congress to try and change it. Until then they are simply in violation of the law.