Advanced SearchA bill introduced in Congress would overturn the ability of the Department of Homeland Security to override as many as 35 federal laws to allow the agency to build fences and physical barriers along the United States-Mexico border.
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The purpose of the Border Security and Responsibility Act of 2009 is to provide “the highest protection possible from the effects of unauthorized immigration, human and drug smuggling, and border enforcement activities, while ensuring that all operations necessary to achieve border security are undertaken,” the bill states.
The Act would amend both the 1996 Illegal Immigration Act and a 2005 amendment known as the Real ID Act.
Real ID permits the secretary of DHS to act in the name of national security in the border region without a private property owner’s permission and without federal or tribal review.
States have contested Real ID’s rigorous requirements to prove that “official” drivers’ licenses used to board airplanes and enter federal buildings are only issued to recipients legally in the United States.
The Grijalva bill would overturn certain border security provisions of Real ID by substituting new language for provisions that allowed then-DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff to build hundreds of miles of border fence on land north of the Mexican border without landowner consent, without a legal assessment of wildlife corridors or other environmental impacts, and without legal consultations with tribes on their concerns. His actions resulted in heated protests along the Texas border from private property owners.
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, then-Arizona governor, responded to The Associated Press in 2005 after Real ID passage, “Show me a 50-foot fence and I’ll show you a 51-foot ladder; that’s how the border works.”
DHS spokesperson Matt Chandler said on April 27, “The Department of Homeland Security does not comment on pending legislation - As a general matter we agree that state and local officials should have a seat at the table when making decisions related (to) our shared security. Improving coordination with local officials is a top priority for Secretary Napolitano, and is a critical step towards establishing effective safety and security."
Grijalva spokeswoman Natalie Luna said, “I don’t believe (Grijalva) has spoken to Secretary Napolitano and I am not sure if she has had a chance to see this legislation.”
The Act requires a number of procedures be followed for border protection and control of illegal immigration that in some ways parallel the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) while also restoring NEPA, among many national laws, as a required component of border policy.
These include landowner, federal agency and state, local and tribal governmental consultation and approval of “Border Protection Strategy” that the DHS secretary would be required to pursue. DHS would also consult with appropriate Mexican authorities.
The protection strategy would include different alternatives before the use of intrusive fences and large-scale physical barriers for border security protection including, among others, electronic surveillance, pedestrian corridors, increased Border Patrol, control of vegetation to prevent funneling both illegal traffic and wildlife to isolated corridors.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Arizona Game and Fish Department and many other agencies and conservation groups have claimed that a number of animals, including some not currently facing potential extinction, face an increased threat of becoming endangered as a result of impassable border barriers. Border obstructions have also caused severe flooding in Nogales, the Buenos Aires reserve and the San Pedro River along the Arizona-Sonora border.
The Act requires detailed cost-benefit analyses, “mitigation” of border protection impacts on wildlife corridors as well as general protection of environmental and cultural values. Mitigation would be some type of compensatory action to improve negative environmental impacts; it would not necessarily prevent the impacts.
“The Border Security and Responsibility Act amends the current law, which pursues a ‘one fence fits all’” solution,” Grijalva said in a statement. “Current policy has driven crossing activity to remote isolated areas along the border which, in Southern Arizona, represent significant public and tribal lands. Many of these lands have suffered extensive environmental degradation as a result of unauthorized activity and border security efforts.”
(Editor’s Note: Kamp is environmental liaison for Wick Communications Co. Contact him at bepdick@att.net.)
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Elspeth wrote on May 1, 2009 1:20 PM:
My Congressman, Raul Grijalva, has introduced a very sensible bill to the US Congress, which, in general, I'd be likely to support.
But then, I've been having my doubts when Mr. Grijalva added these comments to insure his bill's passage:
“Current policy has driven crossing activity to remote isolated areas along the border which, in Southern Arizona, represent significant public and tribal lands. Many of these lands have suffered extensive environmental degradation as a result of unauthorized activity and border security efforts.”
My doubts arise when Mr. Grijalva fails to note that "The Policy" has also created a new industry, which is that of the repulsive "coyotes" that often abandon their "clients" to suffer and sometimes die horrible deaths in those "isolated areas."
Until Mr. Grijava includes that unacceptable human cost in his bill, I'll be reserving my support.
That's because, sticking in my mind is a reported image of the ant-covered body of clearly dead young Mexican woman whose baby was still frantically trying to suckle at her breast.
Also sticking in my mind is when a nearly dehydrated migrant recently knocked at my front door here in Rio Rico.
I hope I did the right thing by offering him a long drink of water, despite that his nearly insane behavior nearly scared me to death.
And no, I did not call the US Border Patrol.
Because my experience with the US Border Patrol over the years, suggests that it will hardly ever respond to a report of a single possible capture. "