California Coastal Commission Rejects Plans For Border Fence

AP/KFWB ^

[BurbankKarl]

California regulators on Wednesday denied a Department of Homeland Security's request to fortify the westernmost stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border, setting the stage for a possible legal battle between the state and the Bush administration.

The California Coastal Commission, in a 10-0 vote, found that the harm the project would cause to sensitive habitats outweighed the security benefits provided by filling in canyons and erecting additional fences along the final 3 1/2 miles of the border before it meets the ocean.

"The operation might succeed, but the patient might die," Commissioner John S. Woolley said.

The U.S. Border Patrol insisted the fortifications were needed to deter illegal border crossers and protect its agents. They said they planned to challenge the commission's ruling.

"It doesn't end here," the Border Patrol's Michael Hance said.

The ruling could delay plans to start construction next year on the final phase of the $58 million fencing project. Nine miles have already been fenced.

If the two sides can't reach a compromise, the issue is likely to land in federal court, officials said. The U.S. government, however, holds a never-before-used trump card: Under federal law governing coastal management, the president has the power to override an unfavorable court ruling.

Woolley, for one, said he welcomed the fight.

"For those individuals who wish to pursue this in other venues I wish them Godspeed," he said. "That's what this nation needs to press so we don't run amok with the kind of laws the Homeland Security Act may provide."

The plans call for two additional fences running parallel to the 11-year-old corrugated steel barrier along the border. A patrol road and series of lights run between the first and second fences, and a maintenance road would run between the second and third set of fences.

Much of the environmental concerns stem from 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.

The Coastal Commission said filling the canyon would erode soil near a federally protected estuary that is a refuge for threatened and endangered birds. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also opposed filling in Smuggler's Gulch.

The Border Patrol said proposed alternatives, such as switchback roads through the gulch, would leave gaps in enforcement. The agency's apprehensions fell to 16,000 last year, a decline of 88 percent since the federal government launched a crackdown in 1994, erecting fences, adding patrols and installing lights and motion sensors.

Steep, unimproved roads were responsible for the death of three San Diego-based Border Patrol agents over the past two years. In addition, agents also are pelted by rocks and debris hurled from the Mexican side of the border.

"I think we should defer to the people who put their lives on the line out there in very difficult situations," said U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, who long has advocated beefing up the border.

Hunter, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the commission's "nutty decision" ignored the risk of a terrorist slipping across the border to attack San Diego's Navy bases. He distributed a letter from Navy Secretary Gordon England that underscored the "unnecessary security risk" posed by a porous border.

"Border security is America's Trojan horse," Mike Giorgino, a congressional candidate in San Diego told the commission.

Migrant advocates said the fencing is part of a crackdown that has not stopped those who routinely cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, but only made it more dangerous. Illegal immigrants now cross the border in the deserts of Arizona and California where the blistering heat and freezing cold have contributed to hundreds of deaths.

"This triple fence is the center of untold human rights violations," said Christian Ramirez of the American Friends Service Committee.

The Associated Press

[Jagdgewehr]

The California Coastal Commission, in a 10-0 vote, found that the harm the project would cause to sensitive habitats outweighed the security benefits provided by filling in canyons and erecting additional fences along the final 3 1/2 miles of the border before it meets the ocean.

God help us.

[TheEaglehasLanded]

I think we just need to direct a bunch of illegal aliens to the addresses of these commissioners and send a message to the ELF folks that a bunch of corporate polluters, CEO's and SUV drivers live at those addresses.

[Howlin]

Well, since Lily won't answer me, I'll let you play pop quiz!

Who said?

But how is our survival as a nation menaced when not one American has died in a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11?

[onyx]

That would be Patrick J. Buchanan!

[FairOpinion]

PING!!!!!!!!!

[FairOpinion]

"The California Coastal Commission, in a 10-0 vote, found that the harm the project would cause to sensitive habitats outweighed the security benefits provided by filling in canyons and erecting additional fences along the final 3 1/2 miles of the border before it meets the ocean. "

===


Sure, I am sure some rare rats are more important than the AMerican people and the security of the nation. So what, if some terrorist could smuggle a nuke into the US, just as long as we protect some bugs or rats.

Another example why enviro-wackos ARE DANGEROUS!

[FairOpinion]

Good find!

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[kingu]

Heck, we don't need to go out of country to contract for the fence.. Have the company who made the mural wall in Duarte, CA go in and build it. Wonderful barrier, 14 feet tall, no toe holds at all. Heck, have a design contest from kids from both sides of the border showing what life is like on the other side; the RATs would eat up that type of thing.

Come on, the Mexico-US unity wall! It's for the children!

[FairOpinion]

"Just make the "Coastal Commission" members personally liable for any damage done by the mass of illegals."

===

Good point!

[NewRomeTacitus]

I thought that was Colin Powell.

Putting possible threats to animal behavioral patterns over real threats to human beings (the BP's) is certifiable. This council is no better than the creeps who spike trees and cause logger maiming and death.

[hershey]

The California Coastal Commission members are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Maybe if one of their family members were shot or raped by illegal aliens, they'd get it. Well, sooner or later we'll have to reassert control over our borders, but probably not before something hugely awful happens. These people are nuts.

[Howlin]

Nope, it was Pat!

[WOSG]

what an insipid liar, eh?

[Travis McGee]

These CCC greenie weenie wonks trump the DHS?

What alternate planet have we landed on?

[cyborg]

Yes. Apparently this man hasn't opened the newspaper lately either.

[Pitchfork]

ping

[budman_2001]

Just being inquisitive, but what kind of 13 mile fence costs $58,000,000? This isn't just plain old fence, or is it?