Ecological damage to the area is likely to increase. The US Border Patrol has numerous proposals on the table to increase infrastructure and patrols in the area to deter migration. Many of these projects aim to fortify isolated stretches of desert that include some of the most pristine wild areas in the nation. Recent passage of the REAL ID act could exempt the Border Patrol from conducting appropriate Environmental Impact Studies of the area. In addition to pushing migrant flows into even more inhospitable terrain, these construction projects could cause devastating damage to the fragile ecosystem in the borderlands.

In November 2004, the Border Patrol issued a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for operations in southern Arizona. It details the infrastructure to be built along the state’s 380-mile border: a 253 percent increase in remote surveillance video cameras; a 223 percent increase in the number of miles of fencing along the border; a 340 percent increase in the number of miles of the border lit with 24-hour lighting (nocturnal animals will be particularly affected by this incursion); and a huge increase in the number of new roads built in sensitive desert areas.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity (www.sw-center.org), the Border Patrol’s “on and off-road patrols, road construction, aircraft overflights, military training, … stadium-style lights, construction of walls and fences, and intrusive remote sensing and surveillance operations … damage legally protected natural resources, disturb rare and endangered wildlife, and threaten the survival of the already imperiled plants and habitats on which they depend.”

Several animals native to the Sonoran Desert are already critically endangered, and will be significantly impacted by the proposed Border Patrol projects. For example, due to habitat loss and over-hunting, the jaguar is threatened throughout the U.S.-Mexico border. The American jaguar has been virtually eliminated from its entire U.S. range, and is just beginning to stage a comeback. A conservation strategy is planned for the species, and will rely on protecting and maintaining migratory patterns from Mexico into the U.S. According to the Border Action Network (BAN), proposed migrant control projects, such as expanded fencing, “will be built directly across the portion of the border that these animals are almost certainly using as a migration corridor. This will effectively prevent any future migration into the U.S. and will jeopardize the survival of the entire species.”

In May 2005, Congress passed H.R. 418, the REAL ID Act, which allows for the expedited construction of roads, walls, fences and other barriers along U.S. borders by providing DHS with authority to waive any federal or state law, including those that protect public health, safety and the environment. This bill would apply to all areas along and “in the vicinity” of boundaries with both Mexico and Canada. Federally protected lands, including national parks, wildlife refuges, forests and wilderness areas, could be subject to this provision.

Infrastructure proposals that harm the environment in the fragile southwest should be measured carefully. Current data shows that despite the massive buildup of infrastructure in California, Arizona, and Texas over the past 12 years, the Border Patrol has not succeeded in effectively deterring migration. Rather, it has revised it’s estimates of undocumented entries into the US upwards since 1993 – from an average of 250,000 entries then to almost 500,000 today. Before engaging in the construction of massive infrastructure projects in environmentally sensitive areas like the Sonoran desert in Arizona, the Border Patrol should evaluate the effectiveness of such infrastructure. To continue on its current path is to waste resources on failed security models and destroy a unique wilderness area that Americans have treasured and enjoyed for over a century.