Free Republic

At Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a remote desert area in southwestern Arizona bordered by Mexico to the south and a Native American reservation to the east, red-lettered signs warning of’ BLASTING’ began appearing over the past week. Crews have been blasting the hillside while excavators and backhoes are clearing a path for the Trump administration’s towering border wall sections, a pace that environmental groups are concerned that sacred burial sites and ancestral lands are at risk of being irreversibly damaged.

Contractors began replacing border fencing along a two-mile stretch of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument this week, the first of three projects that will add 30-foot high "bollard" walls along three of Southern Arizona's wildlife refuges. In photos shared with TucsonSentinel.com, construction vehicles and staged piles of steel beams were sitting along a recently bladed 60-foot-wide stretch of earth on the wildlife refuge near Lukeville, Ariz... TucsonSentinel.com reported last week that construction was to begin Monday, despite headlines in other news outlets that the work had been "delayed." The project is a further sign that Trump administration officials are...

The Trump administration is forging ahead with plans to construct new border barriers in wildlife refuges in Southern Arizona, telling a court that one project will begin with the removal of older fencing on Monday (Aug 19)... "They will be replaced with new bollard wall that will be 30-feet tall and includes a linear ground detection system."... Tucson Sector Project 2 will begin on August 19 with the removal of two miles of existing pedestrian fence, (director of the Border Wall Program Management Office) Enriquez wrote. That section will be replaced by two miles of new border wall on August...

CABEZA PRIETA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Ariz. -- Mountains of trash, recurring fires, despoiled natural springs, vandalized historic sites and disappearing wildlife are part of the devastating toll that the government's running battle with smugglers and migrants is taking on national parks and wildlife refuges along the U.S. border with Mexico. In southern Arizona, the damage extends to American Indian and private land, jeopardizing a broad expanse of the Sonoran Desert, which boasts a greater diversity of plant and animal life than any other North American desert. At Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, 2 1/2 million pounds of garbage is scattered...

<p>U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service law enforcement officer Rob Peloquin exams one of 20 or 25 abandoned vehicles in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.</p> <p>An Arizona senator wants the U.S. Border Patrol to have more off-road access when combatting illegal smuggling operations that rip through pristine deserts along the border.</p>

l STRENGTHENING AMERICAN BORDERS AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION (House of Representatives - April 08, 2003) [Page: H2918] --- The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Porter). Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. Mr. TANCREDO. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor tonight to discuss the issue of immigration and immigration reform. It is a topic that I often take this floor in order to advance, and I have over the last several weeks chosen to separate the topic up into various component...