Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

October 11, 2007

Federal judge agrees to stall border fence


Federal judge sides with enviros, stalls border-fence work
By Howard Fischer
CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES
A federal judge late Wednesday temporarily blocked further work on a new border fence and barrier through the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle accepted the arguments by Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club that construction, which already has started, needs to be halted immediately. She concluded the organizations showed there was strong evidence of irreparable environmental damage if the project is completed as planned.
The judge also noted that the assessment of environmental effects of the project prepared by the Bureau of Land Management took just three weeks in August, with no opportunity for public comment. Construction started less than a month later.

Arizona Border Fence Environmental Impact Questioned
Brenda Norrell
americas.irc-online.org
With over a billion dollars in "border security funds" allocated by Congress, private companies are carrying out the biggest hoax of all—a $31.5 million dollar, seven-mile border fence at Sasabe, Arizona. The project has been whitewashed by a slim environmental assessment that obligingly finds "No Significant Impact."
Of all the self-serving U.S.-produced environmental assessments published in recent years, the slender pile of papers recently deposited in the Caviglia-Arivaca Library on the Arizona border has to be among the worst.
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4599

Maps to federal spy towers on Tohono O'odham tribal land, from spy towers environmental assessment:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/09/censored-blog-exclusive-us-spy-tower.html
Map of Arizona: EPA

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