Chertoff favors border fence over 'habitat for a lizard'

WASHINGTON - Threats to animals and the environment from border fencing must be weighed against dangers that exist where there is no fence, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday.

"I have to say to myself, 'Yes, I don't want to disturb the habitat of a lizard, but am I prepared to pay human lives to do that?'" Chertoff said in a phone interview.

His comments came a day after a U.S. District Courtjudge temporarily delayed construction of a 1 1/2-mile-long fence the Homeland Security Department is building in an Arizona natural conservation area.

The judge ruled Wednesday that the federal government rushed its environmental study, written in three weeks, and did not take a comprehensive look at how that fencing might effect other parts of the border.

Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club petitioned for the delay.

Chertoff said some 20,000 illegal immigrants crossed the border last year at the San Pedro Riparian Natural Conservation Area in Arizona.

Those immigrants left trash, human waste and abandoned vehicles in the area. They also introduce parasites to the area's aquifer brought with them in water bottles filled south of the border, Chertoff said.

Also, visitors to border parks face dangers from armed drug traffickers and smugglers.

But Judge Ellen Huvelle rejected a similar argument by Homeland Security Department attorney Gregory Page on Wednesday.

Huvelle said the environmental problems and threats to the border have existed for years with no action from the agency.

She reminded Page several times that Congress gave the Homeland Security Department authority to waive environmental laws to deal with border security.

She also said the agency is not studying the effect erecting the fence on one part of the border has on another part of the border.

"Obviously, the more fences put up, the more stresses on where the fence isn't," she said.

Chertoff said he has used his waiver authority previously for border fencing, and "I certainly reserve the right to use it again."

But he added that he is "committed" to reasonable environmental assessments and to taking steps that would reduce environmental impact from the fencing.

A group of border lawmakers and the Texas chapter of the Sierra Club urged Chertoff to study the cumulative effect of building fencing on the nearly 2,000-mile southern border.

The lawmakers in a letter sent Thursday to Chertoff insisted public hearings be held.

"Much of the fencing along the Southwest border is on protected lands and wildlife refuges, or along levees that protect our communities from flooding," the congressional members said in a letter to Chertoff.

"The wall . . . divides a university. It divides the Santa Ana Refuge between McAllen and Brownsville. We have spent millions and millions of dollars to protect the environment, and here they come and divide the land and destroy the environmental protection we have established," said Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas.

Along with Ortiz, lawmakers who signed the letter are Democratic Reps. Ciro Rodriguez and Ruben Hinojosa of Texas and Raúl Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona. Other lawmakers were expected to add their names.

The Sierra Club's Texas chapter also announced its opposition to fencing along the Texas-Mexico border Thursday for similar reasons.

Bob Irvin, a senior vice president with the Defenders of Wildlife, said jaguars have been seen in the Arizona conservation area. The government should have to consider whether a fence will keep jaguars from normal movements across the border and whether the cats would survive if they were forced to shift their movements.

"You can't look at the impact on wildlife where you are building a wall. You have to look at the impact in other areas as well," Irvin said.