Border securityEnvironmentalists worry border environment protection

Environmentalists have taken aim at Senator John McCain’s (R – Arizona) amendment to the Senate appropriations bill for DHS that would allow border enforcement agencies ultimate authority within 100-miles of the U.S. border.

The amendment would allow border enforcement agencies to supersede any existing environmental law that currently protects the land including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.

Under the REAL ID Act, the secretary of Homeland Security already has the power to override any environmental law on federal lands if it interferes with the construction of border fences, but the McCain amendment would expand this authority even further.

In response to the amendment, Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said, “Politicians are playing games with important border-security legislation at the expense of laws that protect clean air, water and endangered species.”

“This amendment is unnecessary, unwanted and threatens significant harm to the wildlife, natural landscapes, and people of the border region,” he continued. “Despite repeated statements and congressional testimony from border-security agencies that they neither want nor need the authority granted in this amendment, radical anti-environment forces in Congress continue to push this hoax on the American people.”

In support of their arguments, the Center for Biological Diversity pointed to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report which found that access to federal lands had not been limited in twenty-two of twenty-six sectors along the border and the problems that have arisen only resulted in “minor delays.”

“The losers in this game will be jaguars, ocelots, Sonoran pronghorn, and residents of border communities that will no longer benefit from fundamental protections that allow them to live and thrive in a healthy environment,” Serraglio concluded.