Boy, the richest country in the world sure knows how to waste money. A 370 mile triple-layered wall along America’s southern border has been approved by the U.S. Senate today.

“Senators, in an emotional debate, voted 83-16 to add fencing and 500 miles of vehicle barriers along the southern border. It marked the first significant victory in two days for conservatives seeking to place their stamp on the immigration measure.

The prospects are less favorable for their attempt to strip out portions of the legislation that could allow citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants and create new guest worker programs. The Senate acted as the White House struggles to ease the concerns of House Republicans who contend that President Bush favors amnesty for illegal immigrants.”

source

(below: Israeli Separation Wall)
This “fence” will be longer than the Berlin Wall. Regardless of your views, building this wall to stop “illegal immigration” is just absurd. The reason why undocumented workers are here in the first place is an issue of economics, and building a wall does nothing to quell that problem. Statistics show that building walls along the border has never reduced immigration, it has only forced migrants to cross at more dangerous locations where they risk death in desert or mountain areas.

Senators are too monomaniacal about the immigration debate to see what they are actually doing. They’re literally building a wall through the middle of an ecosystem. For years, a wall along the Mexican/American border has been halted due to environmental concerns. Now the Department of Homeland Security has authorization from Congress to disregard environmental and other laws in order to construct it. This means death for about 47 endangered species along the border. The Sonoran Pronghorn was once prevalent in the American southwest and northern Mexico, now there are only 300-500 left in the world. Several bird species, bats, ocelots, and jaguars are also in trouble. In addition, this wall will cut through the tribal lands of indigenous peoples. The Tohono O’odham Native American nation is one such group whose land will be divided.