The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is providing what they call "humanitarian services" for immigrants & OTM's illegally trying to cross the U.S./Mexico border through the Buenos Aires NWR through the use of watering stations....
From U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service --
Humanitarian organizations will be allowed to continue to provide humane water stations on Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona. After a review of the proposed activity by refuge staff it has been determined that placement of water for use by those in need in the desert will help save lives and is compatible with the purpose of the refuge, which is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
In order to minimize environmental impacts, sites throughout the 118,000-acre refuge will be allowed for placement of stationary, 55-gallon water drums adjacent to roadsides and in already disturbed areas. Since 2001, three such sites have been
allowed on the refuge.
“Our decision to allow water stations on Buenos Aires was based on a thorough review of different approaches to provide water for humanitarian needs and minimize environmental impacts from each of those approaches,” said Benjamin Tuggle, Southwest Regional Director for the Service. “Placement of these water stations is yet another tool being used by the refuge to provide life-saving aid to those in need in a manner consistent with our conservation mission.”The refuge’s location along the international border with Mexico within the Altar Valley of southern Arizona provides a unique opportunity to protect remnants of a fragile desert ecosystem and to provide refuge for some of the region’s most imperiled species of plants and wildlife. However, in the past eight years, 25 people are known to have died on refuge lands while trying to cross the desert. Read more...
It looks like plants, wildlife and people illegally entering our country are more important than protecting the imperiled residents of AZ!
Providing water for illegals as well as ignoring there status has to encourage large groups of them to stomp through this preserve leaving behind there liter and stomping on the vegetation. If you or I were caught off road there "endangering the protected fauna" we would surely face arrest and punishment.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that I don't get it ??
You don't get it because you are a U.S. Citizen. It appears the rules and laws of this country are only to be enforced against US citizens.
ReplyDeleteThe people who provide the water in the stations are American citizens, as well. I know; I am the president of Water Station, the group that does the work in California.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you, 1SG, what you missed -- you missed the fact that we are providing emergency, life-saving assistance. You also missed the fact that we clean the area around our stations. There is a great deal of other litter and it is a very real concern to us (as most human rights activists are also environmentalists).
You suggest that we encourage people to cross the border. If you give that idea even a little bit of thought, you will see that such a claim is ridiculous. People cross the border because there is a chance for a better life on the other side. We do not provide that better life; we simply try to prevent death.
Aiding and abetting illegal immigration is defined in Title 8 of the US Code as providing shelter, transportation or employment. The encouragement for the migrants to make the very dangerous crossing has nothing to do with a few hundred barrels of water bottles; it has everything to do with paychecks.
To 1SG I'd ask: What part of humanity don't you get? What part of love your neighbor? Would you walk by a person dying of thirst and let him or her die? Be glad that the government, and Sinequi, are doing the humane thing on your behalf.
ReplyDeleteTo King: Laws should be enforced. But laws that don't work should be fixed. (Don't give me the "they just have to enforce the existing laws" retort. Check the facts. Immigration enforcement has increased constantly, at massive expense, through the Bush and Obama administrations, but it hasn't fixed the system. You can't make a bad law work better by enforcing it more harshly.) Why do people in the Tea Party have such a problem with the idea of fixing our immigration system and providing a workable path to citizenship for people who have proven to be hardworking, gutsy, and committed to family and who just want the same opportunities in life that you have?