Amy Juan questioned why the Trump administration is misrepresenting the border wall as a critical security measure and targeting millions of dollars to build a structure the Tohono O’odham Nation doesn’t want.
She said there are three Customs and Border Patrol Sectors – Ajo, Tucson and Casa Grande – operating on their land, along with border checkpoints and surveillance technology.
“I wanted to start with that because it seems that a lot of people think that this is an open border and that there’s nothing in place in terms of homeland security,” Juan said.
She spoke with other local environmentalists on The Center for Western Priorities podcast “The Landscape,” recorded Aug. 28 at the Scoundrel and Scamp Theatre near downtown Tucson. Juan joined the show by phone from the Southern Arizona border.
Matthew Nelson with the Arizona Trail Association said the construction is not about national security, “It’s a money grab, let’s be honest.”
The federal government is spending more than $46 billion on border enforcement with private contractors receiving the bulk of that taxpayer money. Trump administration officials have argued that the second wall is needed to fully secure the border and some construction is on land north of the U.S.-México border that the federal government manages.
“The project will close one of the most dangerous smuggling and trafficking corridors on the Southwest border: remote desert that has facilitated decades of drug loads, migrant deaths, and cartel activity,” Rodney Scott, U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, wrote Aug. 27 in an emailed statement to Arizona Luminaria.
Aaron Weiss, the podcast producer and host, also spoke with Russ McSpadden of the Center for Biological Diversity and Emily Burns of Sky Island Alliance. The local environmentalists shared their concerns about the effects of border wall construction on public lands and wildlife.
Sky Island Alliance placed cameras along the border to understand what happens with wildlife as they move along historic migration corridors, Burns said.
“Our research shows that 86% of all animals at the foot of the border wall are unable to cross,” she said. “That includes small animals and large animals.”
Many animals are found investigating the wall, sticking their head or nose through the four-inch gaps between the steel bollards, she said.
“The likelihood that an animal will successfully navigate not only one barrier but then a second one is really concerning to us,” Burns said. “And we’re really worried about entrapment between the two walls.”
McSpadden said the Center for Biological Diversity has sued the Trump administration, but it’s been difficult to hold the government accountable as the Department of Homeland Security cites national security waivers to bypass laws like the Endangered Species Act.
“They waive everything so they can effectively build lawlessly,” he said. “I think what we’re seeing across the Southwest is landscape modification at a scale North America has never seen before.”
Nelson said he’s grieving the destruction along the border.
“These are public lands that are intended for us to be stewards of for future generations,” he said. “So to see the devastation is deeply saddening.”
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