Environmentalists file suit to stop plans for second border fence

The San Diego Union Tribune ^ | 2/10/04 | Elliot Spagat

[South40]

SAN DIEGO – Environmental groups asked a federal court Tuesday to halt construction of a second border fence in the southwestern corner of the continental United States.

The Sierra Club, San Diego Audubon Society, San Diego Baykeeper and other groups allege the Department of Homeland Security violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to fully consider potential harm to the environment.

The Bush administration contends the second fence and a patrol road are needed to improve security on the westernmost 3.5-mile leg of the U.S.-Mexico border. Environmentalists say the project would erode soil just south of a 2,531-acre federally protected estuary that is a refuge for threatened and endangered birds, plants and fish.

Environmentalists say flattening canyons to make room for the fence is overkill.

"It's like cutting butter with a chainsaw," Cory Briggs, a lead attorney in the case, told a news conference outside the federal courthouse.

The Border Patrol, which is part of the Homeland Security Department, said it is committed to the project.

"If we are confronted with a lawsuit, it is simply one of the hurdles we are willing to address to achieve the goal of security," Border Patrol spokesman Richard Kite said.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, comes eight days before the state Coastal Commission considers whether to give its stamp of approval for the fence. The commission staff has recommended against the proposal, setting up a possible showdown with the Bush administration.

The current fence is falling apart in coastal stretches. Further east of the coast, the government already has erected secondary fencing, including a new 14-foot-high mesh fence that is angled at the top.

The portion of the project in question would require crews to move 2.1 million cubic yards of dirt in an area known as Smuggler's Gulch, or enough dirt to fill about 300,000 dump trucks, according to a report from the Coastal Commission staff.

[South40]

Protect our borders...NOW!

[Spok]

Is it remotely possible that the enviro-whackos have a political agenda? D'ya think?

[johnb838]

F'n watermelons.

[whinecountry]

Where's the Coastal Commission's Environmental Impact Report on the damage done by all the illegals coming across?

[rhombus]

F'n watermelons.

John F'n Kerrymelons

[DustyMoment]

"The Bush administration contends the second fence and a patrol road are needed to improve security on the westernmost 3.5-mile leg of the U.S.-Mexico border."

Really??!! Bush has shown no interest in securing ANY of our borders. If ONE fence won't keep them out, how is a second fence supposed to help? Why not electrify the one fence that there is? Why not construct guard towers every 500 yards? Why not dow what he does so well if he's serious, ignore the voters and erect the second fence anyway?

Quite frankly, I doubt the veracity of this story. Bush has not shown ANY interest in securing the borders and this just doesn't make sense.

[concerned about politics]

Fascist litigation. The anti-American tool of the left.
Get a radical judge to dictate their radical agenda to the American people. Force the citizens to obey.

[calcowgirl]

Baykeeper ping.

[South40]

Where's the Coastal Commission's Environmental Impact Report on the damage done by all the illegals coming across?

The damage is clear.

[daffyduct]

threatened and endangered birds, plants and fish.

Let the stupid birds fly over the fence...plow under the plants and fry the friggin' fish.

We are the ones threatened and our freedom is endangered. I think those wackos brains are fried from smokin' those plants. Those fences might stop some of their drugs from getting here.

[South40]

Right you are.

GWB has no intention of letting the issue of securing our borders impinge on his desire for reelection.

What's ironic is...his position will probably cost him the election.

[Viking2002]

The Sierra Club, San Diego Audubon Society, San Diego Baykeeper and other groups allege the Department of Homeland Security violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to fully consider potential harm to the environment.

How about harm to the Republic, you effing cretins? Oh, I forgot - you think spotted owls are more important than national defense and human lives.

[South40]

The National Environmental Policy Act is widely abused by enviro-wackos as a means of bringing to a halt any project they oppose; this is just the latest.

It's bogus legislation to be sure.

[South40]

I've riden these stream beds on horseback and found them littered knee deep in some places with plastic water bottles, soiled pampers, discarded clothes and every imaginable type of trash you might imagine in a land fill except appliances and fruniture.

You failed to mention the hundreds of decomposing bodies of those so intent on entering our country ILLEGALLY they risked their lives crossing our deserts.

But their deaths are, of course, our fault because we put up a fence.

Idiots.

[cwb]

I'm going to enjoy watching how real environmentalist deal with the question of immigration in the years to come...especially in Cali. These people who want a pristine California are going to have to come to grips with a growing populous that is going need new sewage, electricity, housing, etc. How are these liberals going to defend their position on immigration when that process inevitably leads to the very destruction of an environment they wish to protect? If this immigration continues, I beleive we will eventually see a reversal of some liberals on this issue as California begins to look...and smell, like a third world nation, thanks to a population explosion that isn't compatable with a pristine environment.

[BurbankKarl]

I heard the Sierra Club was going to oppose the Bush guest worker program, since the NoCal Libs want California to remain at 25 million people.

[DustyMoment]

"What's ironic is...his position will probably cost him the election."

That's what I think, too. I guess in the Bush family, the acorn just doesn't fall far enough away from the tree.

[grayeagle]

What is the date of the "Conquest Of AZTLAN" chart?

[South40]

I don't know the exact date of the chart but I'm almost certain it is post 2000 census.