Scott Nicol
With the rampant political grandstanding seen so frequently in politics today in the form of xenophobia and jingoism, the United States’ arrogance and stubborn tendencies tend to create a social and psychological climate that is dominated by fear and gullibility. Nowhere is this more apparent than along the southern borders of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, which hug the US with Mexico. Primarily established to enact tighter control on immigration, both illegal and legal, the approximately 700-mile-long wall running from San Diego, California, to Brownsville, Texas, has created unintended ill effects for more than just immigrants. The first 652 miles are road-based, the last 300, pedestrian.
For the many wildlife species that exist in the arid desert on the borders of both nations, the concept of a dividing line is immaterial. Sonoran pronghorn, ocelot, and jaguar, already listed as endangered species before construction of the border wall, have been further stressed by its construction and current border policies. Equally as endangered are the national parks and Native American reservations that are also a vital part of this biome. California’s Joshua Tree National Park and Arizona’s Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge are also strongly affected due to the presence of endangered desert tortoises.
Working for the health of human and wildlife communities is the Sierra Club’s Borderlands campaign, led by Scott Nicol of McAllen, Texas. A Sierra Club activist for over a decade, in 2012 he became the campaign’s team leader.
I interviewed Scott on March 31from his office at South Texas College in McAllen, where he teaches art. He commented on the inefficacy of the fence, saying it takes about ten seconds to climb up and over the top, and how it is seen as a major environmental and social problem for not only US-Mexico relations, but for global ones as well.
Says Nicol, “Customs and Border Protection referred to federally owned wildlife refuges as ‘low hanging fruit’ because they didn't need to condemn land to put up walls in refuges. Building on federal lands was easy; condemning private property was a pain.”
Additionally, erosion has been an issue in the Otay Mountain Wilderness Area near San Diego. In Otay, supposedly a roadless area, 530,000 cubic yards of mountainside were destroyed just to make a path for the wall and the patrol road. That debris was allowed to roll down the mountain into the Tijuana River below, contributing further to erosion.
In other places, such as the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona, erosion occurs when walls dam up ravines and washes and the pent-up water gouges new paths.
A third problem occurs for many tribal nations whose religious customs are being affected by the placement of the wall, which is a direct violation of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978. Tribal nations such as the Tohono O’odham of southern Arizona and the northern Mexican state of Sonora and the Lipan Apache of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, are unable to perform sacred spiritual and religious ceremonies that have been instilled in their traditions for millennia due to the building of the wall.
Normally, local, state, and federal laws would protect endangered species, ensure clean air and water, and allow local communities a say in new federal projects. Unfortunately, in 2005 a bill was passed that gave unprecedented power to the Secretary of Homeland Security in the form of being able to waive any federal, state, and/or local law that stood in the way of building the wall or its construction.
Meet the Real ID Act of 2005.
Signed into law by President George W. Bush, the legislation is responsible for the waiving of thirty-seven bills to date. All of these laws relate somehow to the protection of wildlife and wild places, Native American tribal rights, environmental quality, and land management. The law, specifically Section 102, gives the Department of Homeland Security free rein to dismantle over a century of environmental and social progress in order to build a wall deemed to be ineffective.
The Real ID Act was passed as part of the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief. Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff used the waiver in all four states along the United States’ border with Mexico to override important environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the Clean Air Act of 1963, and the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The full list of acts violated can be found here.
In California in 2005, the secretary waived environmental laws to bulldoze two hilltops, backfill a canyon, and build a three-tiered wall, roads, and stadium-size security lights. The canyon, Smuggler's Gulch, drains directly into the Tijuana Estuary--one of the last salt marshes in southern California and internationally recognized as a breeding and nesting ground for over 350 bird species. Erosion from construction and backfill in the canyon also threatens the health of the estuary ecosystem.
In 2007, Secretary Chertoff invoked the waiver to speed up construction of a 35-mile wall along the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range, adjacent to the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona. Many agencies have worked together on the Goldwater Range to bring the Sonoran pronghorn back from near extinction. The wall, which was voted unfavorable by local land and wildlife managers, including the U.S. Marine Commander on the Goldwater Range, could completely reverse the achievements of the multi-agency recovery efforts for the pronghorn.
Chertoff also waived key environmental protections to build a 15-foot-high, impermeable steel barrier along the edge of the San Pedro River in Arizona and a vehicle barrier in the river channel itself. The San Pedro, the last perennial free-flowing river in the southwest, is home to a great diversity of mammals, reptiles, insects, and plants, and whose watershed is one of the most biologically diverse areas in North America.
These are only a few of the egregious environmental crimes against nature and humanity that are nevertheless completely legal under the Real ID Act of 2005. This type of political power is unprecedented and cannot continue. No one individual should be allowed to single-handedly brush aside local, state, or federal laws. The Sierra Club’s Borderlands campaign offers a fighting chance for the inhabitants of this biologically and environmentally rugged area.