4 April 2008
Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security is pushing ahead to finish 700 miles of fence along our southern border. First, will it work? I think not as illegal crossings will happen in more remote parts of the 2,000-mile southern border and second it will damage hundreds of thousands of acres of fragile habitat on the southern border and break environmental laws. He has gone so far as to waive the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and other environmental protections. Is this another “Brownie” presidential appointee without the qualifications needed to do his job properly? Sounds like billions of wasted dollars building a fence that will not do the job. A lot of the illegals in this country come in legally and then overstay their allowed time.
The Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge is smack dab in the way. It runs zig zag along 200 miles of the Rio Grande. The fence will cause some endangered species to end up on the Mexican side where they will be impossible to monitor and protect. The fence could be an environmental disaster. Congress stupidly created this mess when it gave the secretary waiver authority in 2005. They did build in a loop hole which is requiring, “that before the Department of Homeland Security receives any funds, the secretary must show that he has properly consulted with local officials and landowners. He must also provide a detailed justification for each separate segment of the fence”. To prevent an environmental disaster, Congress has the power to block the project and should rapidly rewrite a bad law. This whole fence idea is Bush’s way to appease immigration hard-liners.
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