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and Border Protection is proposing to construct a total of 63 miles of new bollard wall in place of dilapidated and outdated designs in Pima and Cochise counties.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 commentsenv@cbp.dhs.gov 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
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Comments
Glad - the poll is supposedly from Harris/Harvard polling. Hardly a bastion of right wing thought. As I said in my post, I haven't vetted the reporting so I did not present that as "truth and facts". I explicitly said "if true". But nice attempt to try to twist my words. What are facts are the numbers related to asylum seekers and overall illegal entries. But you like the others remain silent on that.
It isn't disappearing before your great obiwan knowledge and explanation, it's merely a matter of my self restraint. I've known you here for years and you never change your annoying troll-like behavior. I hate it when trolls get my goat and I say something appropriately vulgar.
No need to say anything vulgar Rick unless you have nothing else to say. Fact is, the facts are against you. We have a massive problem at our southern border and while I don't think a wall is the best solution it is a solution that is most capable of being implemented, Its unfortunate that it may have some negative aspects on the visuals in a small section of the park (*) but the cost and impact on our country of doing nothing is far worse.
(*) Kurt - The headline says 63 miles of fence in the park. The map shows the total fence at 43.6 miles, only 2/3rds of which are in the Park. Can you explain the discrepency?
Perhaps if we did a better job of educating potential immigrants what they were signing up for we might also alleviate part of the problem.
If for instance we had immigrants sign a document that informed them that upon becoming a U.S. citizen that each man woman and child in their family would also be handed a bill for some $67,000 dollars owed to the U.S. government. And also inform them that this amount would grow daily until which time their new government decided to pay it's debts.
Or more realistically, that if you are of age to work and actually strove to become a productive member of society by paying taxes, you would be handed a bill for more than $400,000.
And they should be informed that this is ONLY what they immediately owed and did not include all the promises made to citizens for future benefits.
As a side note and to be fair they should also be informed that depending on which state they decide to call home they might very well owe additional money.
Would this stem part of the tide? Because that IS the reality. Let that sink in for a while.
https://www.equities.com/news/the-us-is-following-italy-s-lead-without-r...
https://www.justfacts.com/nationaldebt.asp
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/2018-taxes-some-of-americas-biggest-companies-paid-little-to-no-federal-income-tax-last-year/
https://publicintegrity.org/business/taxes/trumps-tax-cuts/you-paid-taxes-these-corporations-didnt/
O@ Kurt, I have mixed feelings when it comes to taxing corporations. On the one hand they are what drives our economy and hopefully their employees are paying taxes as are their shareholders (sometimes taxed twice). Corporations don't eventually retire and collect social security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. On the other hand they do provide many benefits to their executives allowing them to avoid taxes, they own land, consume resources etc. I do find it unfair (at least on the surface) that a company Ike amazon can avoid taxes while another company or small business cannot. I would have to better understand how they avoided these taxes first. Sometimes it is a matter of moving profits from one year to another, moving up deductions etc. I will admit i'm not sure how I feel when it comes to corporations and taxes and our overly complicated tax code doesnt help.
Well, Wild, companies also exert wear and tear on the nation's infrastructure, pollute it, benefit from the country's largesse, manipulate markets, and can unjustly enrich themselves. We need some serious, collegial, and productive efforts in Congress to straighten all these messes out. The question is whether the politicians can rise above partisanship for the good of the nation.
Buck:
Kellyanne Conway has already made clear what sort of facts she works with. You know things are rough at home when they drag her out to state her 'alternative facts' to the dumber of Trump's followers.