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and Border Protection is proposing to construct a total of 63 miles of new bollard wall in place of dilapidated and outdated designs in Pima and Cochise counties.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
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Comments
Really Brian? Show me facts that prove me wrong. The statistics clearly show that the vast majority of those seeking asylum are denied because they do not qualify and the numbers seeking asylum are a small fraction of total illegal crossings. Last fiscal year they were less than 100,000 asylum seekers, many of which were from outside central america. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/asylum-applications Over 100,000 where apprehending trying to cross this March alone. Who knows how many got across without getting caught. https://freebeacon.com/issues/more-than-100000-tried-to-cross-border-in-...
Cut off jobs, free/subsidized school, free/subsidized healthcare, free/subsidized food and you would see the rush of "asylum seekers" across the boarder reduced to a trickle and our border parks would be far safer.
FYI I don't watch Fox New nor read Alex Jones. I go to the source.
Barriers like walls or even livestock fences do have deterimental impacts on wildlife. The visual impact of a wall in the open landscape of Organ Pipe National Monument will be visible for many miles. Walls are very expensive to build and to maintain.
Not nearly the cost of millions of illegal aliens.
I have been to this area; I have camped at the park campground and toured along the Puerto Blanco scenic drive and at Quitobaquito oasis. They are talking about replacing the existing unobtrusive vehicle barrier with a huge ugly eyesore: an 18-to-30 foot high bollard fence/wall backed by an enforcement zone (typically 150 feet of frontage scraped bare of vegetation) and lit by night-time flood-lighting. This wall will be in-your-face for the entire southern half of the Puerto Blanco drive and your entire time at Quitobaquito. And since the campground has an unobstructed flat southerly view toward the border, this wall may be visible from the campground and, with the flood-lighting, almost certainly visible at night. That we are even contemplating doing this kind of industrial-scale militarization/fortification in a wild and scenic national park is outrageous. Talk about destroying the park to "save" it from migrants and their litter.
ecbuck is 100% correct and for the most part asylum seekers aren't sneaking across the border. It is also a stretch for anyone from Mexico to have a legitimate asylum claim. I think the number is something like 5% and it wouldn't be surprising if half of those are fraudulent. And for all of you who think you are being compassionate and welcoming, consider that everyone who submits a fraudulent claim reduces the chance of someone with a legitimate claim and really in desperate need. It makes one wonder who is really behind these so called immigrant rights groups because they certainly aren't looking out for the interests of those most in need.
In addition to not paying taxes, exploiting our healthcare and educational system, driving without insurance and a multitude of other problems there is also a much more sinister side to this. There is a large criminal element involving not just drug trafficking but human trafficking, extortion etc. with the victims being those who are smuggled across and their families left back home.
Our immigration system needs a major overhaul and protecting our borders is just a start. We do need an easier way for people to come legally and not just asylum seekers (in my opinion) but that won't happen as long as so many continue to flaunt our current laws. Our media has done a huge disservice in not adequately covering all the issues surrounding this and our politicians have also failed by looking the other way for so long.
Finally, wanting to protect our borders does not mean you are anti-immigrant.
thank you Wild Places and ECBuck for your immigration comments. It's great to read something other than the pablum spouted by politicians and special interest groups who want essentially open borders and damn the costs to Americans or the truly desparate in the rest of the world.
I haven't fully vetted this yet but if true it might explain alot about the positions some are taking. Better to be part of the knowledgable few than the ignorant masses. Funny how those that accused me of not know the facts have disappeared when presented with the actual facts. https://thebl.com/politics/only-2-in-15-americans-aware-of-rising-illega...
Oh yes ecbuck - always guiding us to the truth and facts - a rebranded Glenn Beck page (thebl) which then links to Breitbart. Very credible and bias-free sources. Really - is this the best you can do to provide "actual facts"?