11. PUBLIC LANDS: Grijalva introduces border conservation bill (Land Letter, 04/30/2009)

Eric Bontrager, E&E reporter

This story first appeared in E&E Daily.

Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D) proposed legislation last week to give federal security officials more options for protecting the nation's borders while conserving natural resources.

The bill would require the Department of Homeland Security to consult with federal land managers and local and state governments along the border to develop security solutions with minimal environmental impacts.

"Current policy has driven crossing activity to remote isolated areas along the border, which in southern Arizona represent significant public and tribal lands," Grijalva said in a statement. "Many of these lands have suffered extensive environmental degradation as a result of unauthorized activity and border security efforts."

So far, DHS has erected about 613 miles of new pedestrian fencing and vehicle barriers to thwart illegal border crossers and drug smugglers trying to enter the United States.

The effort is mandated under a Bush administration policy intended to beef up security along the U.S.-Mexico border, including through federally protected areas.

The 2005 Secure Fence Act has been heavily criticized by wildlife and conservation groups, which claim the legislation's mandate to construct a fence does not leave much room for protecting natural habitats and rare wildlife.

In Arizona's San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, for instance, a pedestrian fence now stretches to the river's edge, where it is met by a river-crossing vehicle barrier and a new section of pedestrian fence on the other side. In Texas and Arizona, newly erected sections of fence bisect protected habitat for the federally endangered jaguar and ocelot.

Grijalva's legislation would allow DHS officials to have flexibility over what kind of fences are used for particular lands, permitting them to decide whether fences, virtual fences, barriers or other options are the optimal way to guard the border while conserving the local natural resources.

It would also appeal a contentious provision Congress approved in 2005 as part of the REAL ID Act that allows the DHS secretary to waive any federal or state law deemed to interfere with fence construction, including environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. Former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff invoked the waiver authority four times during his tenure.

The congressman introduced nearly identical legislation in June 2007 but it never got out of committee, according to Grijalva spokeswoman Natalie Luna. "With President Obama in office we're hoping this bill will have a lot more traction than during the last administration," she said.

While Obama voted for the 2005 Secure Fence Act as an Illinois senator, he pledged on the campaign trail last year to review the Bush administration's fortification efforts, in part due to concerns about environmental impacts.

"I think that the key is to consult with local communities, whether it's on the commercial interests or the environmental stakes of creating any kind of barrier," Obama said last year at a debate in Austin, Texas.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is permitting border fence projects already contracted under the Bush administration to go forward while she reviews the fence policy (Land Letter, April 16).

Click here to view the bill.

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