Illegal Border Crossings Damage Desert Environment

Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge is "a tragic juncture of geography and politics. If the refuge didn't share nearly six miles of borderline with Mexico, it likely wouldn't host up to 3,000 illegal migrants and smugglers on any given night. Nor would it have 500 tons of trash yearly from that commerce, or an army of Border Patrol agents rumbling about in their trucks and ATVs."

Stephen Mumme, a border environmental management expert at Colorado State University, claims: "The Border Patrol made a raw calculation that the politics of immigration -- and the political support for the agency -- would be strengthened by moving immigration out of the high-density areas." So people are forced to attempt border crossings in remote rural areas. In the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge near Ajo, Arizona, heavy illegal immigration harasses already endangered wildlife such as lesser long-nosed bats and Sonoran pronghorn.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security does not require the presence of environmental experts to consider environmental impacts of infrastructure at the border. According to Jenny Neeley from Defenders of Wildlife: "Proposals like 700 miles of fencing or walls would absolutely devastate the border environment."