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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Migrant trash piles up at remote U.S.-Mexico border areas

    Migrant trash piles up at remote U.S.-Mexico border areas

    By Tim Gaynor | Reuters – 1 hr 7 mins ago...

    RIO RICO, Ariz (Reuters) - Picking her way into the desert brush, Raquel Martinez gathered scores of plastic water bottles tossed in an Arizona desert valley near the Mexico border, often by migrants making a risky trek into the United States across increasingly remote terrain.

    "We need more bags ... there's so much trash," said Martinez, one of scores of volunteers helping clean up the dry bed of the Santa Cruz River about 10 miles north of the Mexico border on Saturday.

    Trash tossed by thousands of illegal immigrants as they chase the American Dream has been a persistent problem for years in the rugged Arizona borderlands that lie on a main migration and smuggling route from Mexico.

    The problem was compounded as immigrants and drug traffickers responded to ramped up vigilance on the U.S.-Mexico border by taking increasingly remote routes, leaving more waste behind in out-of-the way and hard-to-clean areas, authorities say.

    "Migants used to follow the washes or follow the roads or utility poles," said Robin Hoover, founder of the Tucson-based non-profit Humane Borders.

    "Now they're having to move farther and farther from the middle of the valleys," he added. "They end making more camp sites and cutting more trails when they do that, and, unfortunately ... leave more trash."

    Those making the punishing march carry food, water and often a change of clothes on the trek through remote desert areas that can take several days.

    Most is tossed before they pile into vehicles at pickup sites like the one getting attention on the outskirts of Rio Rico, from where they head on to the U.S. interior.

    "One of the problems that we are facing is that these sites are becoming more and more remote as law enforcement steps up its efforts," Henry Darwin, director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, said of the flourishing borderland garbage dumps.

    "There's probably sites out there that we haven't encountered yet or don't know about because there's a lot of people out in those areas," added Darwin, who gave testimony on the issue to state lawmakers earlier this month.

    BACKPACKS AND WATER BOTTLES

    There are no numbers to show exactly how many would-be migrants or smugglers take the illegal and surreptitious trek across the border into Arizona from Mexico each year.

    But in an indication of the scale of the migration, federal border police made nearly 130,000 arrests last year in Arizona, where hundreds of Border Patrol agents, miles of fencing and several unmanned surveillance drones have been added in recent years to tighten security along the porous border.

    With limited funding for clean up, Arizona environmental authorities draw on volunteers to help in drives like the one near Rio Rico, where an estimated 140 volunteers including residents, community and youth groups took part on Saturday.

    Clean up efforts since 2008 by the department of environmental quality have included pulling 42 tons of trash from 160 acres of Cocopah tribal lands in far western Arizona, and clean ups at least seven sites on ranches and public land in areas south of Tucson.

    Signs of illegal immigrants and even drug traffickers making the circuitous foot journey abound in the mesquite-studded riverbed near Rio Rico, a vigorous day's walk north of the border.

    "I've found about a trillion water bottles," said David Burkett, a lawyer from Scottsdale, who worked up a sweat as he filled his fourth 50-pound trash bag. Nearby are tossed backpacks, food containers, a blanket and a pair of shoes.

    He points out that alongside the apparent migrant trash is a large amount of other waste including a couch, kitchen countertops and yard debris, likely tossed by residents and contractors. Still, it is a shock to those living locally.

    "We don't realize how bad it is until we come down and see it," said Candy Lamar, a volunteer who lives in sprawling, low density Rio Rico, as she works to pick up trash.

    HAZARDOUS CLEANUP

    The area getting attention on Saturday lies a few miles from a remote spot where the bodies of three suspected drug traffickers were found shot to death "execution style" last November.

    The area is not far from another out-of-the-way spot where Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot dead by suspected border bandits in December 2010. Volunteers working on Saturday were aware of the potential hazards.

    As she stuffed a blue garbage sack with trash, retiree Sharon Christensen eyed discarded burlap sacking, blankets and cord -- the remains of a makeshift backpack of the type often used by drug traffickers walking marijuana loads up from Mexico.

    "It would make me hesitant to come out here on my own, knowing that this kind of activity is going on ... It is a concern, and we need to be mindful," said Christensen, a retiree and hiking enthusiast.

    Clean-up organizers liaise with Border Patrol and local police on security, in addition to warning volunteers of potential danger from snakes, scorpions or even bees that can swarm in discarded vehicle tires, and of potential hazards including medical waste and human excrement.

    Equipped with gloves, volunteers such as Burkett, the Scottsdale lawyer, were glad to take part on Saturday.

    "As an avid outdoors person in Arizona, I spend a lot of time using the desert," he said. "It's important to me personally to take the time to give back."

    Migrant trash piles up at remote U.S.-Mexico border areas - Yahoo! News
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  2. #2
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


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  3. #3
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Volunteers from the Anza Trail Coalition of Arizona collect trash near the border with Mexico in Rio Rico, Ariz, on Saturday.

    MSNBC.com

  4. #4
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    Illegal Immigrants Trash Border Lands With Tons Of Waste

    February 01, 2012
    Judicial Watch

    A little-known side of the heated Mexican border security issue is that government workers risk their lives to clean up the huge amounts of trash left by illegal immigrants in secluded desert areas with rigorous terrain.

    The job is becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous as illegal aliens use more remote paths to avoid stepped up enforcement along the vast U.S.-Mexico border, according to testimony delivered recently by the director of Arizona’s Department of Environmental Quality. The state official, Henry Darwin, recently testified before an Arizona Senate committee in charge of border security and other related matters.

    Each year illegal immigrants leave behind an estimated 2,000 tons of trash—including soiled diapers, plastic bottles and abandoned vehicles—in public Arizona lands along the border, Darwin said, and it’s becoming tougher to clean up the huge mess. “These are dangerous areas,” Darwin told the panel. “These are known areas of illegal immigration, illegal drug trafficking.”

    Getting cleanup crews and equipment to these increasingly remote portions of the desert is, not only tough, but also hazardous. Camp sites set up by illegal immigrants and drug smugglers are the most difficult to clean up, Darwin said, and rain often washes trash into drainages before state workers have a chance to clean it up.

    The problem is so severe that the state created a special web site dedicated to trash along Arizona’s 370-mile border with Mexico. It includes pictures of southern border areas covered with piles of waste as well as alarming statistics. For instance, the thousands of tons of trash discarded by illegal immigrants annually is having a detrimental environmental impact and affecting the area’s human health and the economic wellbeing.

    Listed examples include strewn trash and piles, illegal trails and paths, erosion and watershed degradation, damaged infrastructure and property and loss of vegetation and wildlife. There is also lots of vandalism, graffiti and damage to historical and archaeological sites. Adding insult to injury, taxpayers pick up the exorbitant tab to clean it up. This so-called “landfill fee” ranges from $37 to $49 per ton in southern Arizona and that doesn’t even include costs for materials, equipment, labor and transportation.

    For years American taxpayers have financed never-ending cleanup efforts along the southern border. That’s because millions of pounds of trash and human waste are left by illegal immigrants who cross through federal and state parks during their trek from Mexico into the U.S. A few years ago the federal government invested $63 million to clean up 25 million pounds of trash in the country’s most prized national forests, including Arizona’s Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and California’s Cleveland National Forest.

    The effort barely put a dent on the problem because federal officials say the trash piles up at a much faster rate than it can be cleaned up. This continues to “cause extraordinary damage to natural resources and facilities,” according to congressional testimony delivered a few years ago by a high-ranking U.S. Forest official.


    Illegal Immigrants Trash Border Lands With Tons Of Waste | Judicial Watch
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  5. #5
    Senior Member SicNTiredInSoCal's Avatar
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    Oh and it doesn't stop at the border! Here in CA, everywhere illegals live there is trash around them. Back in the 90's we used to see mexicans/hispanics stopping along side the freeway to change their kids' diaper, then they'd just toss it out along side the road, get back in their Astro van and leave!

    They do it on the beach too. Done with your can of soda? Don't bother walking it to one of the many trashcans available! Just toss it and walk away! Someone else will pick it up!

    Time and again we witnessed these acts of carelessness!

    I live in a rural area now (thank you, God), but the other day I was taking my kids to school along one of the local roads here and I noticed more trash than usual stuck in the bushes along side the road. When I stopped to pick some of it up, I noticed it was mexican horchata drinks and those funky sodas they like so much. Granted, some of this could have blown out the trash truck, but why is it nearly always mexican based brands?
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  6. #6
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    I think it should be dumped right on the border it wouldn't take very long to build a fence.

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