Posted on 04/03/2008 7:10:35 AM PDT by reaganaut1
To the long list of things the Bush administration is willing to trash in its rush to appease immigration hard-liners, you can now add dozens of important environmental laws and hundreds of thousands of acres of fragile habitat on the southern border.
On Tuesday, Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, waived the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and other environmental protections to allow the government to finish building 700 or so miles of border fence by year’s end without undertaking legally mandated reviews of the consequences for threatened wildlife and their habitats.
Will this stop or slow illegal immigration? No. Long experience has shown that billions of barricade-building dollars will simply shift some of the flow to more remote parts of the 2,000-mile southern border. And no amount of border fence will keep out the 40 percent of illegal immigrants who enter legally then stay too long.
It will be a disaster on the ground. One example of what’s at risk is the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. It runs in checkerboard fashion along the 200 miles of the Rio Grande before it empties into the Gulf of Mexico. When the fence is finished, most of the refuge’s 95,000 acres — and the ocelots, jaguarundis and other rare species that live there — would wind up on the side of the fence closest to Mexico, virtually impossible to monitor and protect. Other sensitive areas in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas would also be affected.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It should made clear that politicians who use this pretext to block a fence are not serious about border security.
When jaguarundis are exiled, only Mexicans will have jaguarundis.
Oh, wait...
“fragile habitat on the southern border”
Clearly this person has never visited the southern border.
Like the PACE dip sauce - “New York City”
Preening, elitist, liberal, shivering chihuahua.
Maybe Chertoff would run the fence through the Jason Blair Building (home of the NY Slimes!)
The fence is more important than all those things even though the fence will have little effect on any of them. The wacko's are just using them as an excuse to prevent the fence. Regardless of that the security of our borders trumps all the other BS.
New Yorkers, like the traitorous Times editors,
ought “monitor and protect” NY Governors, first.
Wow, I can hardly bear the thought. By the way, how exactly did the U.S. gov't establish a National Wildlife Refuge that is mostly outside the U.S.?
“Clearly this person has never visited the southern border.”
You’re right, but you can bet he owns a pair of those faggy, pointy-toed, corner-kicking roach stomper “kowboy” boots and one of those pink gay-cowboy hats.
I can’t believe the NYT is saying this with a straight face. Everyone has seen footage of the horrendous trashing of the border area. I’m surprised the “jaguarundis” can find their way through the heaps of trash and human feces that litter the region right now.
I know I’m not the first to suggest that arrested illegals are conscripted, Sheriff Joe style, to spend a few weeks wearing pink overalls, cleaning up their mess on our side of the line before being sent back.
I'm sure the ones we have up here around San Antonio will be just fine. They're cool lookin’ critters!
`See My Vest’
by C. Montgomery Burns
See my vest, see my vest,
Made from real gorilla chest,
Feel this sweater, there’s no better,
Than authentic Irish setter.
See this hat, ‘twas my cat,
My evening wear - vampire bat,
These white slippers are albino
African endangered rhino.
See this tie, it’s no lie,
Not a bat, or brown wharf rat,
A Mexi-cat, an Ocelot—
It really fought and cost a lot!
“When the fence is finished, most of the refuge’s 95,000 acres — and the ocelots, jaguarundis and other rare species that live there — would wind up on the side of the fence closest to Mexico, virtually impossible to monitor and protect.”
Here’s an idea, All the eco-twits and animal-rights nutballs can move to Mexico to protect them!
Build a huge fence, but reframe the border issue. The fence, you see, isn't about keeping illegals out of the country, and as a matter of fact is only incidentally on the border. In fact, it sole purpose is to protect fragile desert habitat, and we were actually going to build the fence all the way around said habitat, except that the dang contractor overspent and now we don't have enough money to complete the full perimeter, only the southern boundary. (Some day, I assure you, we will get more funds and can finish the rest of the perimeter, just as soon as medicare and social security and the schools and so forth are fully fixed and/or funded.)
We should be so lucky.
Wow! Wonder if those of us in Florida can get an EPA waver to build a fence around New York City?
I know, I know. Wishful thinking.
Another load of that well known commodity from the NYTimes.
Many of our problems can be laid at the door of these environmental wackos.
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