Today the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal year 2019 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill that includes $1.6 billion for border wall construction and 375 additional border patrol agents. The bill will fully fund construction of approximately 65 miles of additional border wall in the Rio Grande Valley, effectively sealing off the entire valley, sparing only the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge.
Defenders of Wildlife recently released a comprehensive report, “In The Shadow of The Wall,” detailing how a border wall would damage wildlife values and undermine decades of binational work to protect this region and others along the border.
Jamie Rappaport Clark, Former president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, issued this statement:
“The Trump administration’s border wall demands are dividing communities and wildlife in the United States and Mexico. The Rio Grande Valley is a unique and diverse ecological landscape that is an irreplaceable part of our nation’s heritage and will be forever and irreversibly altered with more wall construction. We’ve seen the pain inflicted on children and families seeking refuge in the U.S. and building more walls is not the solution.”
For nearly 80 years, Defenders of Wildlife has worked to protect and restore America’s wildlife at risk of extinction, advancing a vision of a future in which wildlife thrives, sustained by broad public support and a resilient network of healthy lands and waters. With a network of more than 2 million supporters, Defenders is an advocate for innovative solutions to safeguard wildlife for generations to come. To learn more, please visit https://defenders.org/newsroom or follow us on Instagram @defendersofwildlife.
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