memo<\/a> drafted by Republicans on the House Committee on Natural Resources states that the \u201csheer number of illegal migrants crossing the border results in destroyed vegetation and desert areas become dumping grounds.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Arizona Department of\nEnvironmental Quality estimates that each illegal migrant contributes 6-8\npounds of trash during their journey across the desert. In other words, if\nalmost 180,000 illegal immigrants leave at least 6 pounds of trash each\n(usually comprising of backpacks, medical products, plastic, vehicles, and clothing),\nthat is more than a million pounds of trash left in our environment for the\nmonth of April alone. This waste often doesn\u2019t disintegrate and poses serious\nrisks to wildlife in the border region, some of which are endangered species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report goes on to\nmention \u201cnot only does this pollution threaten wildlife, but it also\njeopardizes their habitats.\u201d While we are inundated with Netflix and indie\ndocumentaries on the harmful effects of toxins in our environment and how they\nimpact the natural world, such as coral reefs dying due to ocean acidification\nor fish swallowing discarded plastics, we have not seen a single documentary or\nenvironmental advocacy group pointing out the new \u2018landfill\u2019 that has become\nour southern border and the effects it has on the plant and animal life that\nlive there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where are the environmentalists? The memo points out that 693 miles of the southern border is federal or Native American-owned land, some of which the United States has designated as protected areas that illegal border crossers do not respect. These delicate sites include the Sonoran Desert National Monument and Ironwood Forest National Monument, both of which needed habitat restoration after being used as smuggling corridors for illegal migrants. In addition, destruction of federal lands by illegal migrants have affected Organ Pipe National Monument and Buenos Aires National Wildlife refuge due to illegal trails being carved through the sanctuary. The report points out that even migrant campfires have caused more than 370 acres of the Cleveland National Forest to burn causing an adverse impact to more than 200 sensitive species found in the Coronado National Forest. The real question is, what environmental impacts are we not seeing or haven\u2019t been studied yet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the end, illegal\nimmigration not only does harm to Americans and migrants themselves, but hurts\nthe very things we love, whether it\u2019s our environment, natural habitats, unique\nwildlife, or federally protected sites. Unfortunately, the current administration\nhas not addressed this environmental disaster along our southern border\u2026 or the\nborder crisis at all. Republicans and Democrats should come together and use\nthis opportunity to discourage the human smuggling we are seeing every day at\nthe border for the one thing that could unite us all \u2013 protecting America\u2019s\nsacred environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today, there is no doubt that the issue of \u2018immigration\u2019 is defining contemporary American politics. After all, it is 2021 \u2013 Joe Biden is president and Congress is gridlocked. Unfortunately, immigration has become a political football for Republicans and Democrats. Everywhere we look we see buzzwords that make news headlines like \u201camnesty\u201d, \u201cNorthern Triangle\u201d, \u201casylum-seekers\u201d,<\/p>\n
Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":24262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1450,7],"tags":[10413,778,1524,222],"yst_prominent_words":[11553,11548,2043,11551,11547,11554,11311,11557,2013,4130,8668,1963,2016,11552,11549,11555,11556,11546,11550,2862],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24588"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24588"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24593,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24588\/revisions\/24593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24588"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}