Maybe I watched way too much Captain Planet as a kid, or maybe all those commercials of rain forests being destroyed planted some seed deep down that has finally bloomed. Or maybe this is just a case of sheer common sense. But either way I am really annoyed. The U.S. Homeland Security has been given approval by Congress to finish the remaining wall on the U.S. and Mexico border. In order to do so, the laws protecting the natural environment have been set aside.

The procedure would allow the Homeland Security to bypass 30 environmental laws, all in order to hurry up construction of the barrier between the two countries.

Opposition to the decision stems from the possible result on species and ecosystems around the Rio Grande.

Environmental issues have always been second to other “more pressing issues” in terms of American politics. The only time everyone seemed to be on the same page about these types of issues is when Al Gore came out with an Inconvenient Truth.

America seems so interested in keeping non-Americans out that possibly killing off a few species here and there is like killing off ants that crawled into the kitchen.

I honestly don’t understand the rush to get this border up. First of all, what makes Homeland Security think a fence is going to solve the problem of illegal immigration. People have been coming over to the U.S. for years, and I’m assuming a lot of them find other creative ways to make into the U.S.

When it comes down to it a fence is a just a fence. But building one shouldn’t mean the destruction of an entire specie – immigration or no immigration.
—Eming Piansay