Border Fence Harming Wildlife; Grants DHS Power to Waive Any Law

An excellent article in the Washington Post the other day about this border fence we’re building to keep out illegal immigrants.

The basic situation is this:  Congress passed a law that gave some guy (really specific, I know) the power to “waive” any law that would delay the construction of the border fence.  Those include worker safety laws and environmental laws.  If this seems pretty extreme, well, it is.  This isn’t just an issue of environmental law; this is an issue of Constitutionality.

…section 102 of the REAL ID Act amended section 102 of the IIRIRA [Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which was the first act by Congress that ordered the Executive branch to build the border fence] to provide the DHS [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary the authority to “waive all legal requirements” that he determines, in his “sole discretion,” are “necessary to ensure expeditious construction” of the barriers and roads authorized under the IIRIRA.

Here, page 6

That’s pretty amazing, to give that much power to just one individual.  But you know what makes it even worse?  The law passed 100-0 in the Senate, because of an Iraq war emergency funding rider.  There wasn’t even a debate in the Senate or the House about this bill.

Luckily, the Sierra Club and the Defenders of Wildlife are around to bring suit to stop this from happning.

I don’t want to go too much into this because the Washington Post article (and this New York Time article, as well) does a fairly good job of summing up the situation.  At least, I think so.  Probably the best part is when a scientist suggests that ecologists and biologists lay down in front of the bulldozers to prevent the construction from happening.  Wouldn’t that be cool?  Scientists turned activists…well, let’s hope that the Sierra Club and the DoW win their court case.

Probably the most ironic quote from the article:  “The legal and scientific battle over the fence — which will continue despite the administration’s waivers — highlights the reality that prized wildlife species are not respecters of international borders.”

Maybe it’s just me, but the fact that the animals don’t see borders…hmm…maybe there’s just a little bit of wisdom in that.