Chertoff: Border Fence Is Good For The Environment

AP:

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Monday defended the construction of a fence along the southwest border, saying it's actually better for the environment than what happens when people illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico line.

"Illegal migrants really degrade the environment. I've seen pictures of human waste, garbage, discarded bottles and other human artifact in pristine areas," Chertoff said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "And believe me, that is the worst thing you can do to the environment."

Read the whole story: AP

Comments

[Warmglobe]

Yes I agree that it is good for the environment...I can do with more English in my day to day world.

[Gary47]

Don't suppose Mexicans have invented shovels yet...

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

Sorry, but they're too busy with baby/drug making!

[Gary47]

I'm convinced there's a bush admin strategy to have various officials continually say stupid things in order to make their boss look smarter.

[Purple Girl]

There's also bodies out there- people have frozen to death, starved , over heated, robbed and murdered.Shut up!!!! you ignorant slut. If they were smart the solution could be simple- have a flat tax paid upon the return to Mexico. The 'coyotes' charge about $2,000 one way- if we offered those undocumented to pay a $2,000 tax fee to return home (since they'll ave the money in their pocket on the way out)once a year. The people who have been reisking their lives and being charged 4,000 ayear to go back & forth, may be more than happy to pay the Out Tax. Have them check in and check out- pay the bill and go home.Would you rathe rcatch a bus at the border or swim the Rio Grande? simple.

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

Better solution at the border: Offer bounties for captured ILLEGAL ALIENS....although admittedly fraud would be a problem....

[mi]

gee,
what about all those bodies littering the
streets of New Orleans Mr. Chertoff?
or the mess that remains there after 2 years.
it that bad for the environment?

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

"Mi" has personally witnessed the rotting, corporal remains....? Has N.O. drifted SW such that it is now on the U.S.-Mexico border?

Hurricane Katrina was surely more devastating than reported...?

[realitytrumpsbull]

I favor the US/Mexico border fence, not so
much because I disfavor the mexican people, but
rather because I think that having a secure
border between both countries will enhance
mutual security. Reference the Treaty of Guadalupe, reinforcement and fortification
of the border is provided for as of that
writing.

Mexico rides america's coat-tails economically,
as do many other countries. Having a good
border with Mexico will ensure that any/all
commerce will retain at least a ghost of
a chance of remaining somewhat legit. It is
estimated that an overwhelming percentage
of the illegal drugs found and used in the
US today originate from Mexico, and a lot
of cross-border crime is fueled by drugs.
And, in these interesting 21st century times,
having a wide-open border with Mexico is
questionable to say the least. We should
do some fence-mending with Mexico, as it will
help them as well as us. Do we need 2,000 miles
of mended fence? That remains to be seen...
but the 700 miles that Bush signed off on
are a good start in the eyes of a lot of people.
Now, it remains to be seen if they're actually
capable of building any of it...

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

If not fences, then mines! Chertoff is DEAD ON but with missplaced emphasis. Of course, the garbage and filth is disgusting, but the real harm is the AMPLIFIED DEMANDS on the environment any ADDITIONAL resident of N. America places. The PC cannot/will not understand this. Their NEED is to make BORDER CONTROL into a racial issue because THAT'S THEIR ONLY RESORT, and once the CHARGE of racism loses its sting....

Have any of the more PC posters noticed how often ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS (especially Hispanics) are the source of VIOLENT CRIME in the U.S.? (Take off cultural blinders and ECCOLA!)

[AntiFascistCanuck]

I agree I think you ought to get the United Nations involved. Build the fence at the Mexican border and a lethal impenetrable barrier at the Canadian border. Get the combined navies of the world to plug the eastern and western seaboards. Nobody allowed in nobody allowed out.

When satellite pictures reveal USAers building bonfires of bibles and guns and delegations of vips are seen across the borders holding up signs begging for admittance to the world of civil society, only then reopen the borders.

[midtown]

"Mexico rides america's coat-tails economically"

Rahm Emanuel eviscerated Mexico's economy when he pushed through NAFTA against heavy bi-partisan opposition.

You need to read more, and be better informed before issuing these jingoistic tirades.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020401/nichols

[ronspri]

Well, just keep in mind that that wall will keep you in just the same as it keeps them out.

[tkk]

Well, I just hate that because I was hoping to risk my life vacationing in Mexico with all the ruthless, vicious drug lords killing people in the streets since the government only cares about the few rich, elite citizens and can't do anything about the larger crime that is now migrating into the U. S.

We don't need no stinkin' Mexican criminals, we got our own, already!

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

RATHER recently, beheaded bodies have been found in and around Nogales. At least, purchase a marine flare pistol--if they're permitted to non-residents. Also, buy a spritzer filled with NH4!

[DMcD]

Chertoff would think of something like this.

Lets see if we can't help him add to his bank of mis-information. Now lets see --- hmmm , Oh , hold-on its coming to me , I can see it all now ---------

As the dead bodies accumulate on the fence , they will enventually deteriorate into nutrients and fertilizer to feed a forest of sagebrush & peyote which , in turn , will manufacture vaste amounts of oxegen & snipes to cool down the Earth & erase the effects of global warming --- hell , Chertoff and the fence saved the whole damn world.

[whitewaterwillie]

Let me see. Who has the most credibility about issues affecting the environment, The Bush Administration or everyone else?

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

ANOTHER predictable, FALSE DICHOTOMY! Neither has any real credibility OR this planet wouldn't be facing a crisis that is so ubiquitous and unrelenting. Whilst the Bush regime has truly had its head in the sand on the environment, the people of N. America have persisted in a ecological lifestyle that is both unsustainable and unaesthetic!

Like you, Bush and his insentient apologists hope the "environmental crisis" will "blow over" so that SUVs can reign again supreme..... (Politically, this 'spirit' is how Bush was able to sell the Iraq war...)

[tgood]

Why not take away the taxpayer paid protection from George Bush's "ranch", which by the way is a rich man's way of saying estate on a large parcel of land, and let the illegals enter there ?

I bet the crackdown on illegal immigration would get serious then if he and Laura had to worry about who was roaming outside their mansion and on their land. Bush would have to stop chopping brush and start repairing his fences over and over after he gets through hauling off the trash real ranchers have to contend with.

"Each illegal alien leaves an average of 8 pounds of trash at layover and pickup areas. Reports from the Border Patrol Tucson Sector indicate that 8,000 - 10,000 illegal aliens are entering that sector every 12 hours. That means 7,305,000 illegal aliens leave 58.5 million pounds of trash every year in the sector."
http://www.desertinvasion.us/invasion_pictures/invasion_sierra_vista.html

This is more than " a few sandaled feet" doing little damage as the pro illegal argument goes. The hypocrisy never ends.

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

According to the PC apologists for the Third World's invasion: The blessed browns can do not wrong either by their actions or offspring!

[Lisette]

Jhertoff---Where did you go to school? Sue them! Or maybe you are just a nutter!?

[IMPRISONBUSH]

" CHERTOFF " NOW this is a man that will say anything daily he just checks the way the polictal wind is blowing.

A FEW MONTHS AGO HE SAID THE BOARDER FENCE WAS BAD

THEN HE DIDN'T HAVE THE MONEY.

HE LIED ABOUT THE BOARDER GUARD ARREST AND STILL REFUSSES TO GIVE UP THE TRANS CRISPT OF THE TRAIL AND THE LIES THAT WERE USED IN IT.

LIKE IN GERMANY THE PEOPLE THAT STOOD WITH HILTER WERE CALLED ( PARTY MEMBERS ), LIKE IRAN THEY SAID THE KILLING OF SIX MILLION JEWS NEVER HAPPEN.

[zenhead]

I don't favor the wall, but Chertoff is right on the incredible waste left behind by these immigrants. In Mexico, it is common, it seems, for immigrants headed north, to throw their trash -- all kinds of trash -- in the arroyos. They only flow in the rainy season, but then all of that waste -- much of it slow degrading plastic -- goes down stream.
Human poop, dumped in areas by hundreds if not thousands of immigrants, will stay there, in the desert, for decades. Their trash is piled high in places like the Hauchuca Mountains of Arizona, and even in the Florida Mountains of New Mexico.
Armed guards now accompany some drug shipments INTO THE U.S., and I know people who have had to escape and evade M-16 carrying drug guards IN ARIZONA, as much as ten miles NORTH of the American-Mexican border.
I favor another 20,000 border guards and immigration enforcement agents. Hit and/or put out of business some employers knowingly hiring illegals, and that will send a very powerful signal. Bankrupt some of them, and that will ring loud and clear. And, ship a couple hundred thousand illegals back across the border, and put enough human beings on the border to make crossing predictabily unsuccessful ... no matter how many tries, and this will slow down.
But ... we can't whine if prices rise in service industries, as well as with our harvested crops. Cut back on illegals, and the American workforce will have to be paid more, including benefits packages. If that helps take several million Americans off the rolls of those without health insurance, that's great.
Collect back taxes and social security deductions from employers who have been caught, and make them squeal. There's no doubt though ... there is severe environmental impact by millions of illegals crossing the very fragile desert.
It's no joke. It's true. It will take many years to clean it all up once this flood begins to slow to a trickle.

[katlade]

Human waste? What makes human waste different than animal waste? Not to be gross but why would human waste be in the desert for decades. If that was the case wouldn't there be all kinds of animal waste just hanging around.

[PaHairO]

This is hysterically funny.

Chertoff the environmentalist !

THANKS FOR THE LAUGHS. What a clown. The Republican desperation to get distance between themselves and themselves is truly fun to watch.

THANKS FOR THE LAUGHS. Indeed.

[Scooter Wawrzyniec, DDS]

Oh, God!! This is INSANE!
"And believe me, that's the worst thing you can do for the environmen­t"...Chert­off
I'll bet!

[elakelaiset]

Yeah, all that litter strewn around the border is why the polar bears' days are numbered.

[CheneysACoward]

JerkOff goes "green"....

And he does this with a straight face...Unreal!

[mgloraine]

So a few dozen people in sneakers or sandals have created an environmental devastation which will be corrected by bringing in hundreds of bulldozers, back-hoes, concrete trucks, thousands of contractors with their thousands of trucks & SUVs, lunch wagons, diesel generators, portable outhouses, etc. in order to build a fence. And a few concentration camps, I mean "holding facilities". And a few hundred fortified guard facilities. And a few hundred "high-tech" virtual fence towers. And access roads to each of them.

Yes sir, that will be just peachy for the environment, if the environment you are after is an industrial park for construction and security contractors.

[3443649]

It's evident Chertoff has never experianced the joy of pooping in the bushes and absent mindedly wipeing his butt with poison oak leaves. What a shame. He has not realy lived!