O'odham: Border fence would cause damage
Nation fears for its land along 75-mile stretch of border
Photos & images All Slideshows ยป
Click Photo to Enlarge
ADVERTISEMENT
- Most Commented Stories Today
- Most E-mailed Stories Today
Border security fencing authorized under legislation before the U.S. Senate will damage environmental, cultural and natural resources on the Tohono O'odham Nation, its chairman says.
Tribal chairwoman Vivian Juan-Saunders wrote Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl on Thursday to voice the Indian nation's opposition to the Secure Fence Act, which the House approved last week. The act would approve construction of 700 miles of fence across a third of the U.S.-Mexico border.
McCain, who chairs the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, did not respond immediately to a request through his press secretary, Ellen McMenamin, for comment. Kyl's press secretary, Ryan Patmintra, said Kyl was at a campaign event in Arizona and could not be reached immediately.
Juan-Saunders said the act would "unnecessarily damage the physical environment and cultural and natural resources" in areas where proposed double-layered fencing is to be built on the reservation, which shares 75 miles of border with Mexico.
The reinforced fencing is to go through portions of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. "This type of wall would be extremely damaging to the fragile desert ecosystems of the American Southwest," Juan-Saunders wrote.
The House passed legislation in December that concentrated on border security and enforcement of laws banning employment of illegal immigrants. The Senate in May passed a broader bill that included provisions for a guest worker program and ways for the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants to work toward legal status and eventual citizenship.
There has been no progress in efforts to reconcile the two bills.
Juan-Saunders said the building process "would be tremendously flawed from the outset, to the detriment of the (Tohono O'odham) nation and other local communities."
The bill would enable the Department of Homeland Security to waive, and therefore ignore, normally applicable federal, state and local environmental, public health and labor laws, she said.
It also would close the Tohono O'odham nation off from the planning process, she said.
The fencing will be built within culturally and ecologically sensitive locations, likely including lands within national forests, monuments, parks, wildlife refuges and wilderness areas, she wrote.
"Already in Arizona alone, the Border Patrol estimates that 39 species protected or proposed for protection under the Endangered Species Act are already being affected by its operations."
The fence construction "would only further the erosion of the protection of these and other species of wildlife, as well as abundant water, forest, and other natural resources in the proposed construction areas," Juan-Saunders said. "The nation strongly opposes any such potential damage to the physical and human environment."
She said the bill would require the Border Patrol "to build walls, roads and other types of barriers without having to consider or even disclose the potential harmful impacts on wildlife, water resources, or human health and safety."
She also said proponents' cost estimates of $2.2 billion were seriously low, and didn't include condemnation costs.
As important, Juan-Saunders said, the act will undermine cooperative efforts between the nation and the Border Patrol to build a vehicle barrier intended for migrant and drug smugglers along the border.
"The act as proposed and ensuing construction of walls would effectively nullify in its entirety the collaborative approach," the chairwoman said.
- Read All Comments » 4 TOTAL COMMENTS
-
mirabai c. (mirs)
Apr 25, 2007 @ 3:10pmWhy don't the xenophobes just return to their gated communities and undo the onerous Gadsden Purchase? Let the spiritual, ecological, and cultural traditions of the Tohono O'odham Nation continue, unimpeded by the diversionary pork-barrel fence-building of self-interested, nationalistic politicos and bigggots. -
Jose L. (#1758)
Sep 28, 2006 @ 10:52pmBulid the fence around the T.O. (Papago) Rez. Should make evreyone happy. Keeps botht eh T.O.S and the aliens out.
-
Matt j. (pokerpalooza)
Sep 24, 2006 @ 8:53amWasn't The Tohono O'odham Nation complaining about the cost of having to use their police to patrol their area of the border? You can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't complain about the problem and then bitch about the solution.
- Post a Comment »