US - Mexico border wall a disaster for wildlife

28/10/2007 00:00:00 October 2006. Ignoring vociferous protests from conservation groups, the US Senate voted to build a seven hundred mile long, double-layered wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. The proposed wall will do little, if anything, to resolve the underlying causes of illegal immigration but will. Without a doubt, stop natural wildlife migration. It is thought that the wall will to cost an unfeasible $6 billion but will not effectively resolve the issue of migrants crossing in remote areas, where law enforcement is spread thinly on the ground and human life is at risk.

‘This is a disaster for the wildlife species of the border lands such as the jaguar, Mexican gray wolf and Sonoran pronghorn,’ said the director of the Centre for Biological Diversity, Michael Finkelstein. ‘The one thing the wall won't stop is people.’

The Secure Fence Act authorizes the building of at least 2 layers of reinforced fencing from Calexico, California to Douglas, Arizona, virtually the complete length of Arizona's border with Mexico. The wall will bisect delicate desert ecosystems such as the Sonoran and Chihuahan deserts, and harm habitats and species that don’t recognize political boundaries.

The vote has been billed as political manoeuvring by politicians who want to look tough on immigration in an election year. However it makes these same politicians look completely out of touch with the socio-economic and ecological environment of the international border region.
Courtesy of the Centre for Biological Diversity