BLOCKING BORDER PATROL ACCESS: TO SECURE THE US, MEXICO BORDER FROM TEXAS TO CALIFORNIA...
WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal agents trying to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border say they're hampered by laws that keep them from driving vehicles on huge swaths of land because it falls under U.S. environmental protection, leaving it to wildlife — and illegal immigrants and smugglers who can walk through the territory undisturbed.
A growing number of lawmakers are saying such restrictions have turned wilderness areas into highways for criminals. In recent weeks, three congressional panels, including two in the Republican-controlled House and one in the Democratic-controlled Senate, have moved to give the Border Patrol unfettered access to all federally managed lands within 100 miles (160 kilometers) of the border with Mexico.
Two of the panels expanded the legislation's reach to include the border with Canada.
The votes signal a brewing battle in Congress that will determine whether border agents can disregard environmental protections as they do their job
| Some of the most dangerous areas along the southern border are the 20.7 million acres of Department of Interior (DOI) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) land. This includes 4.3 million acres of “Wilderness areas” where activities such as the use of motorized vehicles and construction of roads and structures are prohibited. Documents show that the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service have consistently and actively taken steps that prevent the Border Patrol from securing our nation’s borders on federal lands. According to internal memos, DOI officials have asserted that the Wilderness Act of 1964 trumps border security legislation passed by Congress. |
| As a result, Border Patrol agents are being forced to wade through bureaucratic red tape just so they can do the job Congress has mandated: gain operational control over the U.S. border. The Department of the Interior is hindering border security efforts on federal lands by preventing the use of motorized vehicles, requiring DHS to complete lengthy and expensive environmental analysis, and at times literally locking out Border Patrol agents to prevent their access to some areas. |
NATIONAL SECURITY THREATS:
Federal lands along the border are specifically targeted by criminals, drug smugglers, human traffickers and even terrorists because they are remote, uninhabited and less frequently patrolled by Border Patrol agents.These security gaps along the border make the United States increasingly vulnerable to terrorists, who can take advantage of the thousands of existing smuggling routes on federal land. According to the Department of the Interior’s FY 2003 Public Lands Threat Assessment Report:
“Virtually all of the lands managed by Department of The Interior (DOI) along the Arizona/Mexico border are sparsely populated with easy access into the United States from Mexico. Terrorist wishing to smuggle nuclear - biological - or chemical (NBC) weapons into the United States from Mexico could use well-established smuggling routes over DOI managed lands.”
