Border securityClearing trash along borders becomes increasingly dangerous

Trash left behind at Arizona border by migrants // Source: sodahead.com

Cleaning up the trash left behind by illegal border crossers is becoming increasingly more difficult and dangerous as immigrants move towards more remote areas.

With stepped up enforcement along the border, immigrants have begun traversing increasingly more remote and dangerous terrain, and as a result, state cleanup crews have been forced to enter those same areas to clean up the trash left behind.

Speaking before the Arizona state Senate Border Security, Federalism and States Sovereignty Committee, Henry Darwin, the director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, said, trash along the border has continued to be “a fairly significant issue” even though illegal border crossings have declined.

Darwin estimates that immigrants leave behind roughly 2,000 tons of discarded clothing, backpacks, plastic bottles, soiled diapers, abandoned vehicles, and other garbage each year.

“These are dangerous areas,” Darwin added. “These are known areas of illegal immigration, illegal drug trafficking.”

According to Darwin, many of these sites are in increasingly remote areas and getting cleanup crews and equipment there is becoming more difficult.

“It’s causing a real challenge for us to get the material out of the desert,” he said.

In particular, camp sites where illegal immigrants or drug smugglers wait are the most difficult to clean up and rain often washes garbage from these sites into drainages.

To help solve the problem, at the hearing, State Senator Al Melvin (R – Tuscon), suggested using inmate labor.

“It’s equal to the all-volunteer effort, but in a sense it’s better because we can do it day in and day out,” Melvin said.

Darwin responded by saying the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality is currently working with the state’s Department of Corrections and the governor’s office to make arrangements for inmate assistance.