Desert Pupfish Forces Border Agents to Patrol on Foot

Desert Pupfish Forces Border Agents to Patrol on Foot


by Audrey Hudson


05/18/2011

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These Normandy-style barriers just ten feet from the Mexico border were erected by the National Park Service to block border patrol vehicles from pursuing illegal aliens into the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Agents are allowed to pursue on horseback, but only if the animal's diet consists of weed-free feed so that its feces cannot harm the ecosystem.

Federal agents must abandon their vehicles and chase drug smugglers and illegal aliens on foot through 40 acres near the Mexican border because of a pond that is home to the endangered desert pupfish.

It’s part of the agreement between the Homeland Security and Interior departments on how best to protect the ecosystem, frustrating lawmakers who say it also prevents agents from conducting routine patrols.

Drug cartels and other criminals could care less about these so-called memos of understanding, or whether they are trampling through a protected species' habitat, Rep. Rob Bishop (R.-Utah) told HUMAN EVENTS.

“They would just as soon eat an endangered species as protect it,â€