Endangered Species Violation

The Ocelot one of many cute creatures endangered by the U.S./Mexican border wall

With the changing of the guard in the Oval Office, the Obama administration will be dealing with the environmental neglect that festered during the Bush years. Refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocols as well as massive deforestation legalized by the interior department smeared the president's environmental legacy, but his construction of the American Mexican border fence will be one of his more lasting environmental marks.

The U.S./ Mexico border wall will span across the edge of the Rio Grande to the Pacific Coast of California. Although politically the lines dividing the U.S. and Mexico separate citizens, the wildlife knows no boundaries and the wall's separation will foster inbreeding and artificial genetic isolation. Species with significantly low populations will be affected most greatly by the wall because of divided food resources and decreased numbers of available breeding partners.

Species like the Jaguar, which once roamed freely from Appalachia to Monterey Bay, California are currently on the endangered species list and inhabit the Southern Arizona and New Mexico regions. The construction of the border wall will cut this rare animal from its necessary resources and push it further towards extinction. Even land from the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge has been given up in order to build this fence. Other species likely to be harmed by the border wall include the ocelot, the jaguarundi and the Sonoran pronghorn antelope. Migrating species not currently endangered are expected to undergo difficulties adapting to their newly isolated environments.

One of the biggest problems of American environmental policy is that economic growth and urban sprawl trump the importance of resource protection. I feel that often times revenue brought in by new businesses coerces local governments to relax on the importance of land use planning. If governments at both the local and national level continue to support environmental degradation in order to improve local economies the external costs of environmental damage will continue to add up for future generations.

The Department of Homeland Security's push for the border fence is to cut back on illegal immigration and prevent the hemorrhaging loss of funds that go to medicare for those who are not taxpaying citizens. However the true cost of environmental degradation through an unnecessary loss in biodiversity surmounts that of tax dollars lost to illegal immigrants.



The American/Mexican Border Wall dividing people, destroying species.