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Westernmost Stretch of U.S.-Mexico Border to be Fortified
SAN DIEGO â The Bush administration said Wednesday it will fortify the westernmost stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border over the objections of environmentalists and California regulators, who feared the project would harm a refuge for endangered birds... The move sets up the latest clash between the Bush administration and the state's Coastal Commission, which has denied the Border Patrol permission to proceed with the project...Plans call for two additional fences running parallel to the 12-year-old corrugated steel barrier along the border. A patrol road and series of lights would run between the first and second fences, and a maintenance road would run between the second and third set of fences. Sensors and cameras would track any movement. Previous estimates have pegged the project at $58 million, but [Border Patrol Chief] Aguilar said the final cost had yet to be determined... Concern over illegal immigration led Congress to pass legislation in 1996 requiring the Border Patrol to strengthen the westernmost 14-mile stretch of the border. Nine miles were fortified, but environmental concerns and lawsuits held up construction on the last 3Âœ miles leading to the ocean and 1Âœ miles farther east. Earlier this year, Congress gave [Homeland Security Secretary] Chertoff the power to sign a broad environmental waiver to finish the job, citing fears that terrorists could slip through an unsecured border. Mexico has objected to the fencing. A spokesman for Mexican President Vicente Fox said in May that the president lamented the project and said constructing walls was not the best way to solve the challenges on the common border. Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez has called the plans "inappropriate." The California Coastal Commission was particularly concerned about the Border Patrol's plans to fill a deep, half-mile long canyon known as "Smuggler's Gulch," with 2.1 million cubic yards of dirt, enough to fill 300,000 dump trucks. Commission members feared filling the canyon would erode soil near a federally protected estuary that is a refuge for threatened and endangered birds. The Border Patrol said it would take steps to reduce environmental harm... The Border Patrol said cutting off illegal border crossings will also stop foot traffic in the wetlands. Peter Douglas, the commission's executive director, did not immediately return a message seeking comment. The commission has also locked horns with the Bush administration over its plans to extend leases for oil and gas drilling off the Central California coast. Serge Dedina, executive director of Wildcoast, a San Diego based coastal conservation group, said the fencing would do nothing to deter illegal immigration and would only worsen the fragile Tijuana Estuary. "This project is just basically pork barrel and national security hysteria at its worst," Dedina said. Posted by: Pappy 2005-09-15 |
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