Surprise: Donald Trump’s Border Wall That Mexico Never Paid for Caused “Irreparable Harm” to the Environment, Endangered Species, and Cultural Sites

An “entire mountainside” is said to be in danger of collapse thanks to construction done during the Trump administration.

BESS LEVIN

VANITY FAIR
SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

JOSHUA ROBERTS/GETTY IMAGES

Remember Donald Trump’s Mexico border wall that he made the centerpiece of his 2016 campaign, caused the longest government shutdown in US history, and that he—to this day—continues to lie about? In a development that should surprise exactly no one, it turns out that that wall—or, y’know, the parts of it that were actually built—has caused major damage to basically everything it’s touched.

According to a new report released by the Government Accountability Office this week, the roughly 450 miles of wall that went up during the Trump administration harmed everything from water to endangered species to Native American cultural sites. Monument Hill, for example, a memorial in Arizona used for religious ceremonies that remains important to a number of Indigenous communities, was “irreparably damaged when contractors used explosives to clear the way for expanding an existing patrol road.” Similarly, Tohono O’odham Nation officials reported to the GAO that a sacred burial site near Quitobaquito Springs was destroyed when contractors cleared a large area there.

Elsewhere, the report notes that:

Construction disrupted water flows, and in turn, exacerbated flooding.

The clearing of land for the wall “damaged native vegetation.”

Clearing land without reseeding it “allowed invasive species to take root.”

As a result of the construction work, some ponds in the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona “are now void of water, which makes it difficult to maintain water levels in other ponds that have threatened and endangered fish species.”

“The barrier system has…substantially elevated the risks of the ocelot’s extinction in the US.”

A large construction staging area erected in the Pajarito Mountains in Arizona caused silt to drain “down the side of the mountain and, according to Forest Service officials, is beginning to fill a human-made pond, threatening to eliminate it as a drinking source for cattle and wildlife. Moreover, the entire mountainside is in danger of collapse, according to a Forest Service official.”

In a statement shared by Politico, Representative Raúl Grijalva, who requested the report, said, “This racist political stunt has been an ineffective waste of billions of American taxpayers’ dollars—and now we know it has caused immeasurable, irreparable harm to our environment and cultural heritage as well.”

In related news, Republicans have added funding to expand Trump’s wall to their list of spending demands, with some GOP reps suggesting they would shut down the government if they don’t get it.

 

US border wall construction damaged Native burial site: Government report

New report has found that efforts to expedite construction came at expense of sensitive ecosystems, Indigenous sites.

A section of border wall in the US state of Arizona [Al Jazeera via Center for Biological Diversity]

By Brian Osgood

Published On 8 Sep 20238 Sep 2023

Barrier construction along the United States’ southern border has damaged sensitive ecosystems, public lands and Indigenous cultural sites, a report by a nonpartisan government research agency has found.

Released to the public on Thursday, the 72-page report marks the first independent effort from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to assess the destruction caused by building the border wall.

KEEP READING

list of 3 items

list 1 of 3

US judge orders Texas to remove controversial border buoys from Rio Grande

list 2 of 3

Biden’s asylum curbs at US-Mexico border can stay for now, court rules

list 3 of 3

Man sentenced to prison for defrauding US border wall supporters

end of list

It describes government contractors “blasting” a sacred Indigenous burial with explosives and leaving a mountainside “in danger of collapse”, among other incidents of harm.

The report focuses on a period from 2017 through January 2021, during the administration of former President Donald Trump. While the document never mentions Trump by name, it explains that federal authorities at the time relied on national security provisions to bypass existing protections.

“Federal agencies built about 450 miles [724 kilometres] of barriers along the US southwest border. To expedite construction, they waived federal environmental and other laws,” the GAO said in its summary.

“The construction harmed some cultural and natural resources, for example, by blasting at a tribal burial site and altering water flows.”

The report is the most comprehensive study yet of the border wall’s adverse impacts. It comes as immigration remains a flashpoint in US politics, particularly with the 2024 presidential election on the horizon.

“This report lays bare the damage the wall has inflicted on wildlife, public lands, and Indigenous cultural sites,” Laiken Jordahl, a southwest conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, told Al Jazeera.

“This report by a nonpartisan, fact-based agency confirms what we have been raising alarm over for years.”

Trump made the promise of an imposing wall on the US-Mexico border a centrepiece of his 2016 presidential campaign, which frequently leaned into anti-immigrant rhetoric and portrayed migrants as sources of crime and violence.

Chants of “Build the wall” became a staple of Trump’s campaign rallies.

Those cries are part of a growing international trend. Over the last two decades, the number of border barriers has been on the rise, with countries like the Dominican Republic, Poland and India taking steps to erect or complete fences and walls.

The Migration Policy Institute estimates that, as of 2022, 74 border barriers existed across the globe, compared with less than a dozen at the end of the Cold War.

However, the GAO report suggests steep consequences for environmental and cultural resources if construction is not evaluated beforehand.

“Before building, the Department of Homeland Security [DHS] assessed some potential effects of the construction,” the report’s website said. “But federal officials and stakeholders said they didn’t get enough information from DHS to give meaningful input.”

Construction efforts were complicated by the geography of the US’s southern border: Many sections run through rugged and inhospitable territory, including deserts, mountains and even coastal beaches.

Inhospitable terrain can complicate construction efforts along the US-Mexico border [Al Jazeera via Center for Biological Diversity]

To expedite construction through these landscapes, the Trump administration relied on the 2005 Real ID Act, which allows the government to waive laws and regulations that might pose an impediment to border walls and roads.

While previous administrations had invoked the Real ID Act, the Trump administration did so with unprecedented zeal, utilising it between 25 and 30 times, compare with just five during the Bush administration.

The Trump administration also declared undocumented crossings at the southern border a national emergency, empowering the government to overrule existing laws in the name of national security.

“The Trump administration cast those laws aside and ploughed forward with no thought about the consequences,” Jordahl said.

That authority allowed the government to overrule concerns from Indigenous communities in areas where the government wanted to move forward with construction, such as an oasis with sacred value to the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona known as Quitobaquito Springs.

“Since O’odham ancestors inhabited the area for thousands of years, it is home to several O’odham burial sites,” the report reads.

“According to Tohono O’odham Nation officials, contractors cleared a large area near the springs, destroying a burial site that the tribe had sought to protect.”

Ultimately, Trump completed 737km (458 miles) of border construction, though much of it overlapped with existing barriers. The GAO found 81 percent of the Trump wall replaced barriers erected under predecessors like former President George W Bush, rather than breaking new ground.

During his presidential campaign, current President Joe Biden promised to put an end to border wall construction, saying that “not another foot” would be built during his time in office.

A saguaro cactus lies destroyed near a border construction site in the state of Arizona [Al Jazeera via Center for Biological Diversity]

Biden halted construction upon taking office in January 2021. However, the GAO report offered a warning about suspending all resources to the border wall area: “Pausing construction and cancelling contracts also paused restoration work — such as completing water drainage structures and reseeding disturbed areas with native vegetation.”

Jordahl, meanwhile, believes that reversing the damage will require going even further.

“Ultimately, we want to see this wall removed from sensitive ecosystems where there has been damage to wildlife,” he said.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA