On the Edge: Water, Immigration, and Politics in the Southwest by Char Miller

Author:Char Miller [Miller, Char]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: nature, essays, political science, Public Policy, Environmental Policy, science, Environmental Science, Environmental Conservation & Protection
ISBN: 9781595341488
Google: -0XpCAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Trinity University Press
Published: 2013-03-12T23:43:13.997775+00:00

When it comes time for historians to determine George Bush’s presidential legacy, they will start by addressing his vainglorious prosecution of the Iraq war, the torture he sanctioned at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons, and his domestic power grab that granted the chief executive unconstitutional authorities. As shocking as these extensions of his clout were, they were particularly stunning for the way they subverted his electoral claim to be a devout advocate of small government. As president he created the most intrusive big government Americans have experienced since Richard Nixon. Both presidents placed themselves above the law. As Nixon famously concluded and Bush’s behavior confirms, “When the president does it, it means it is not illegal.”

Scholars will have a field day probing these unsettling parallels and assessing Bush’s unique demerits. When they do, I hope they will also dig into something a bit more down to earth, like the significance of 1.7 million cubic yards of dirt—or the 35,000 truckloads that were required to move it. This, too, is a big story that says a great deal about President Bush’s abuse of political and physical power.

As part of his plan to enhance America’s border security, in 2005 the president claimed he had the authority to set aside individual state and federal environmental regulations. He then proceeded to do so, ordering Homeland Security to build tall, triple-thick fences through public lands and private property, bisecting wildlife refuges, walling off communities, and cutting up ranches from Texas to California. Perhaps the most egregious example of this presidential heavy-handedness occurred along a three-mile stretch of the border between San Diego and Tijuana. The administration’s ambitious goal was nothing short of the reconstruction of the entire terrain.

Ignoring environmental protection lawsuits and the California Coastal Commission’s objections, the federal government spent more than $60 million in taxpayer money to level hills and mesas, fill in Smuggler’s Gulch and Goat Canyon with the soil, and construct a 150-foot-high berm to seal off the smoothed-over landscape. Topping the imposing earthen structure are stanchions bearing high-intensity lighting and surveillance cameras and a fifteen-foot-high chain-link fence, and behind that runs a Border Patrol roadway.

Local environmentalists were infuriated about the costly project. They had worked for years to devise a strategy for building a stronger border without destroying the rugged landscape. “We’ve lost sensitive habitat, and the estuary is now threatened,” Jim Peugh, conservation chairman of the San Diego Audubon Society, told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m really disappointed that our system wasn’t allowed to work the way it has historically and is required to by law.” But Peugh’s plea to protect the imperiled habitat in the Tijuana River watershed fell on deaf ears. Finessing the requirements of the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act—a Nixonian piece of legislation—came easily to an administration that habitually violated the law or waived regulations. In its drive to stop illegal border crossings, the ends justified the means.

With the burial of the gulches and canyons, one Border agent boasted that it was now “logistically impossible” to sneak across the flattened site.

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