Thread: AZ: Picking up what illegal immigrants left behind

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Picking up what illegal immigrants left behind


Updated: Dec 7, 2008 08:37 PM PST


By Suleika Acosta

Illegal immigrants passing through the desert leave hundreds of tons of trash behind every year. This weekend, near Amado, crews are picking up some of that mess.

In just one day, volunteers filled a huge trash bin with 15,000 pounds of garbage collected from the desert.

Gabriel Paz, with Arizona Game and Fish, says lay up spots aren't rare.

"What ever they haven't dumped on the way, they'll usually dump right here because they know their ride is going to be here soon."

Volunteers find everything from abandoned clothing to empty water bottles and personal hygiene products.

Steve Hopkins, with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, estimates there is up to 30 million pounds of trash throughout the Sonoran Desert.

"I love the desert. I think it's a beautiful place to be and when you come out here and come across a big area with nothing but trash, it just destroys one of the reasons you came out here to be a part of it," says Steve.

It's not just garbage volunteers are coming across. Saturday, a group found the body of an illegal immigrant though to have been in a remote desert area for at least a year.

Since 2002, volunteers have organized large clean ups at least twice a year to battle what they call an ongoing statewide issue.

"This effort started on the Internet with a group of hunters who were talking on a chat line. And they were all talking about how they didn't like the trash out here and didn't like to see it so they called us, we organized a clean up and we've been doing them ever since, " adds Paz.

By the time this clean up effort is over, volunteers expect to have collected ten tons of trash over this weekend alone.

www.kold.com

Illegal aliens should be cleaning up their own trash, then kept from coming here.

Maybe Hussein Obama could make this a WPA project for illegals.