Arizona’s “Protected” Federal Lands – The Gateway for Illegals

By Mike Shaw

You’ve seen the pictures and the videos.  Arizona’s border is littered with litter.  Not just litter, but human feces and tons of trash ruin the environment and negatively impact the Sonaran Desert’s rich wildlife.  So where is the outrage?

Turns out that not only is the left silent on this serious problem, now they want to study it!  Yep.  One man’s trash is another’s research grant.  The National Science Foundation and the University of Michigan are collecting garbage from trash sites along the border.  The Huffungton Post reports, “Since 2008, The Undocumented Migration Project, directed by De Leon, has collected what has become the largest assemblage of migrant artifacts in the country.”

ARTIFACTS?!  Wow.  If you want to call old clothes, backpacks, water bottles, children’s toys and dirty diapers artifacts I would submit that you are severely delusional.

The problem is so bad and the clean up so dangerous that the head of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality is quoted in a KTAR.com article, “‘These are dangerous areas,’ Henry Darwin told the Senate Border Security, Federalism and States Sovereignty Committee. ‘These are known areas of illegal immigration, illegal drug trafficking.’”

and that, “… illegal immigrants leave behind an estimated 2,000 tons of clothing, backpacks, plastic bottles, soiled diapers, abandoned vehicles and more each year.

The worst sites are where illegal immigrants or drug smugglers wait or camp, he said, adding that rain often washes the debris into drainages.”

According to U.S. Government figures, Arizona has a much bigger illegal immigration problem than Texas or New Mexico.  Why?  The very lands that are set aside for Federal protection are the ones that are being used and abused the most by human and drug smugglers.

In Texas and New Mexico most of the land along the border is owned privately by ranchers.  They protect their own land and cooperate fully with Border Patrol to control what happens on their property.  In Arizona, large areas of federal wilderness areas are being taken advantage of by illegals who have no regard for Federal Law.  Roads and vehicles are not allowed on federal lands which keeps the Border Patrol out.  It’s the illegal border crossers that further break the law by using vehicles, horses and even bikes in areas that are restricted to such traffic.  Just like criminals are the ones with guns in so called “Gun Free Zones” it’s the smugglers that drive vehicles where no vehicles are allowed.

The People for Preserving our Western Heritage have put together a very informative slide presentation using the government’s own numbers and graphics to show that Federal Lands in Arizona are a wide open invitation for illegal immigration.  These areas often suffer more environmental harm then unprotected areas.  Watch in horror as the government’s own numbers show that the Organ Pipe National Monument is so severely impacted by illegal activity that it is an environmental nightmare.  This presentation is well worth your time to watch and share:

Click to watch the slide show

The irony that “protecting” our land is what leads to most trashing it is lost on those that claim to care about the environment.  Perhaps it’s because playing the environment card is often done when it benefits a certain agenda and not because the environment matters.

Next time you hear Congressman Raul Grijalva say we need more federally protected lands along the border, hear what he is really saying.  He is actually advocating for more illegal immigration, more drug smuggling, more human smuggling and more trashing of our beautiful desert.