current measures in the Homeland Security Act will make construction of the triple fence between San Diego and Tijuana a priority.
STOP THE BORDER TRIPLE FENCE!!!!!!
Dacshle and Lieberman are discussing a compromise with house leaders on language in the Homeland Security Act. Language being discussed currently INCLUDES Duncan Hunter’s rider (section 416) which will make construction of the triple fence between San Diego and Tijuana a priority. If you’re the type that still has faith in the system, please call Senator Daschle’s office and Senator Lieberman’s office to urge that the triple fence not be included in the Homeland Security Bill.
Senator Tom Daschle: 202-224-2321
Senator Lieberman: 202-224-4041
If you have zero faith in the US government, please continue your work to smash capitalism, smash the state, smash borders and encourage an international community where the lives of people and the environment are known to be more important than maintaining an exploitable labor force.
WHAT WILL BE LOST:
The fence is part of a national border enforcement plan devised in the 1990s which has already lead to the death of over 2,200 migrants.
The functionality of the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve is threatened by this project. Massive cut and fill activities would drastically alter its ecosystem, in which over 53 rare and endangered species currently live.
There are several sites of archeological importance in the footprint of this project. Some of the sites are 6,000 to 7,000 years old and offer unique windows to the past.
The proposed triple fence will destroy the symbolic significance of Border Field State Park, an area dedicated to friendship between the United States and Mexico.
DETAILS:
AMENDMENT TO H.R. 5005, AS REPORTED OFFERED BY MR. HUNTER OF CALIFORNIA
At the end of chapter 1 of subtitle B of title IV, of HR 5005:
SEC. 416. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING CONSTRUCTION OF FENCING NEAR SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA. It is the sense of the Congress that completing the 14-mile border fence project required to be carried out under section 102(b) of the
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C.
1103 note) should be a priority for the Secretary.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The section of the border to which this amendment refers currently has an improvised single fence with a few breaks in it. Because of this fence and Operation Gatekeeper, few people currently cross in the region, and instead, risk there lives in 2-3 day journeys across the eastern deserts and mountains. Currently, roughly 1 person dies every day due to these draconian measures. If this section of fence is completed in the manner that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has proposed, under the proposed rider "section 416. Sense of Congress Regarding Construction of Fencing Near San Diego, California" there will be irreversible damage done to ecological, archeological and cultural resources, while little will be done to address the human rights abuses and environmental destruction already created by Gatekeeper
The INS’s plan would expand the single fence to three parallel fences with roadways between them in an extremely sensitive biological reserve. The proposed project requires large amounts of cut and fill work in canyon areas where the soils are highly erosive. In that section the mesas will be cut down to provide fill dirt for this project. The mesas, the steep natural banks, and the canyons provide habitat to over 53 endangered plant and animal species. There are many archeological sites, some over 7,000 years old, in the project area. Many of these resources are one-of-a-kind and would be lost forever if this project is completed.
The project also bisects a bi-national "Friendship Park," where citizens from the U.S. and Mexico are able to talk through the fence. Pat Nixon originally dedicated this park with the hope of creating a bi-national park area without fences.
Since 1998 government agencies, from the local to federal level, and citizen groups have been meeting with the INS to help them construct a project that would avoid these negative consequences. All of the groups involved with this process saw the Draft Environmental Impact Statement as an indication that the INS was only participating in these meeting as a technicality. The INS appears to have no intention to change the border fence project to avoid the most critical and precious resources. These groups and agencies provided several comment letters to the DEIS, going into detail on the reports insufficiencies. The DEIS is insufficient in the alternatives explored, the survey work done, and the explanation of mitigation for the project.
EMAIL TO GET MORE INFO:
swiadcarey@aol.com.