Border Fence with Mexico Harms the Environment

Amanda Kauppila
jora_bhm@yahoo.com
English 102
Response Paper
November 19, 2008


“America’s Border Fence with Mexico Will Have Disastrous Consequences For the Environment”


Con: Against the border fence. Pro: For the Border Fence.



Con: Absolutely it will. The 670 miles of crudely built fencing plans to cut straight through the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, a 57,000 acre refuge and one of the few remaining safe havens for animals in the American Southwest.

Pro: “Crudely” built fencing you say? How did you come to that conclusion?

Con: The most recent sections added to the fence, for instance, are made up of wire mesh that is reinforced by concrete-filled poles or by taller concrete-filled poles planted six inches apart. I might not be an expert on such things as this, but still this information does not sit well with me. Some of this fencing sounds flimsy and easy enough to damage, and then penetrate.

Pro: You only mentioned some of the fence building strategies that the government has implemented. They have also created sections of solid metal, which consists of corrugated steel that was once used during the Vietnam war in aircraft landing mats.

Con: How well will these materials truly stand the test of time, though? It is estimated that costs could range from $16.4 million to $70 million per mile depending on damage. This is not a magical unwavering material were talking about here. The elements of course will have an incalculable affect on the fence, not to mention those who attempt to cross the border. Those that brave such an endeavor are desperate, and will do anything and everything to get across into America.

Pro: So…we should let them in?

Con: I never said that. Just that the fence is a complicated and costly solution that was not very well thought out.

Pro: Any solution we present will be costly. The Mexican-American border is said to stretch 2,000 miles in length; that’s a lot of ground to cover. This fence only deals with some of the border, but it is a better alternative to the situation we had prior to its existence. Some border patrol officers have testified that the fence will give them the extra time needed to locate a person that is trying to sneak across, and apprehend them.

Con: The fence is not just costing us money, though. It is also seriously harming the ecosystem that it is now cutting into two halves. The Bush administration has (by way of Congress’ “kind” permission) waved over 30 environmental-, historical-, and cultural-protection laws and regulations in order to carry out their project. It is incredibly difficult to get laws passed that actually protect land as opposed to cutting it up and sucking it dry of its resources.

Pro: Isn’t that description a bit extreme, “sucking it dry?” The fence is not laying face-down over the entire span of land that is the conservation area. It is merely running through it.

Con: Except that this in itself will have devastating consequences on the wildlife of that area, many of whom are on the endangered species list and cannot afford to be tampered with by man any further. The San Pedro River in Arizona is one of only two major rivers flowing from Mexico into the United States. It provides a vast number of birds and small mammals with a much needed habitat, and is a watering hole for animals such as deer, mountain lions, bobcats, and jaguars. Cut across this environment with an impenetrable shield and you will prevent many of those animals from finding water to drink, and deny certain species a place in which to breed. If I must I will make myself very plain: animals will not breed with one another, and eventually die out; they will not find water to drink in a blistering hot environment….and they will die. I hope that people do not need a second lesson in biology to remember that on this earth, all life is tied together. If you kill off far too many birds (which, by the way, is happening now all over the world) through such common means as replacing their habitats with cities and leaving them homeless and left to die, suddenly you will notice a spike in the already abundant insect population. Mosquitoes, flies, and insects known to damage crops will (and are) all increase. The natural world has been at work forming its complex blueprints for successful functioning of life far longer than we have been in existence. We are already seeing the effects of our ignorance on the environment through things like global warming. Man will stop and think someday, but by then it might be too late.