The Impact Of Illegal Immigration On Border Environments

26 March 2005 - 9:00am

Environmental destruction along vast stretches of Arizona's formerly pristine border with Mexico is rapidly increasing.

"The trail of environmental destruction along Arizona's border with Mexico is growing at increasingly rapid rates, overwhelming land managers and making a mockery of the wilderness designation those lands carry.Vast stretches of borderland in southwestern Arizona, deemed pristine respites by Congress, are pockmarked with the debris of illegal immigration from rusting cars to the rutted trails they and their Border Patrol pursuers cut into the fragile desert crust."

Source: The Arizona Republic, March 25, 2005
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Even if the report overestimates the costs by a factor of two and underestimates the tax-benefit by a similar amount, the conclusion would be pretty much the same: destination resorts cost local government and taxpayers money.