O.R.C.

In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement was passed, doing much to destroy the economy of Mexico. When US companies were given the green light to extract resources from Mexico, people began to follow, and illegal immigration into the USA began to spike.

Now, the US Government is building a fence to keep people out. But fearing the impediment of due process of law, Congress has given the Department of Homeland Security permission to waive the standard paperwork procedures that allow the public to participate in environmental decisions made by the government. On April 2nd, 2008, the DHS announced another two uses of their waiver, for almost 500 miles of fence.

These fences gravely threaten the ecosystems they run through, cutting off wildlife migration. By bypassing the environmental impact system, they have effectively removed the ability of legal, above-ground environmental groups to work to halt or mitigate the negative effects of this fence.

The fence will lead, at the very least, to the closing of two nature preserves.

The secretary of the DHS, Michael Chertoff (pictured), defends the waiving of over 30 environmental laws by pointing out that crime doesn’t wait for time it takes to go through checks and balances. It is likely that he said this without grasping the irony of the statement.
Far too often, people are too quick to demonize only the president and his administration for all of this destruction, but it is important to remember that it was congress that granted the waiver to the DHS in the first place.