http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... t0204.html

Immigration puts species in danger
Wildlife declines along the border

Michael Clancy
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 4, 2006 12:00 AM

Illegal immigration and government efforts to stem it could wipe out several endangered plants and animals along the border, environmental organization Defenders of Wildlife argues in a new report.

The 350-mile-long border with Mexico is home to Sonoran pronghorn, desert tortoise, jaguar and 36 other species that are protected or proposed for protection, the report says. Many of the animals live nowhere else in the United States.

"The Arizona borderlands encompass some of nation's most compelling and unique landscapes, and some of its most threatened," the report says.

The federal government, through the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies, protects "a rich and diverse array of natural habitats," making the area a haven for wildlife and plants.

But thousands of migrants and increasing enforcement of border security have resulted not just in trash heaps and abandoned vehicles, but also in long-term damage to environmentally sensitive areas and degradation of several species: mammals, birds and fish.

Much of the blame falls, the report argues, on federal policies designed to reduce immigration by forcing it out of urban areas, which took effect in the mid-1990s. But migration levels did not decline, and now an estimated half a million people are crossing the desert in search of work.

The report cites another report, from the Government Accountability Office, that says habitat can take decades to recover, which in turn affects wildlife.

Among the most strongly affected are the Sonoran pronghorn. Once found throughout the Sonoran Desert, it has been reduced to three small, isolated populations. The only one on this side of the border is at Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Arizona.

Fences and paved roads are especially problematic for the pronghorn, the smallest of five subspecies.

The Arizona population dropped from 100 to 21 animals between 2000 and 2002, according to the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Although drought contributed to the decline, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service blamed most of the decline on migrant and law-enforcement activities.

"With no place left to hide," the Defenders of Wildlife report says, "the Sonoran pronghorn teeters at the edge of extinction, a desert ghost in what should be its inviolate territory."

Conversely, the report says, the jaguar has returned to the far southeastern corner of the state, an area not completely trampled by migrants and enforcement activity. But it warns that it is only a matter of time as migrants displaced by increased enforcement to the west begin using that part of the state for travel.

Birds and fish also face threats as wetlands and rivers are overrun.

"With each passing day, the vital network of precious lands set aside along the Arizona border becomes more like a militarized war zone than the safe haven for wildlife and habitat it was intended to be," the report reads.

Those charged with protecting the land and habitats accuse the Border Patrol of ignoring their concerns and federal law, the report says, and new laws exempt the patrol from environmental laws.

Jim Hawkins, public affairs officer for the Border Patrol's Tucson sector, had not read the report. But he said the patrol itself has "strict policies for minimizing our impact on the environment," and that it cooperates closely with government land and wildlife managers.

"If you leave illegal immigrants unchecked, the damage will be tenfold," he said. "If we get operational control of an area, it is much better for the environment. We think we can find a happy balance between our enforcement responsibilities and environmental protection."

The report calls for a comprehensive reform of immigration policy along with increased funding for environmental concerns, mandatory coordination among federal and state agencies, infrastructure that has no ill effects on wildlife, and technological improvements to border-enforcement methods.