Today the Department of Homeland Security House Appropriations Subcommittee passed a spending bill for fiscal year 2019 that includes $5 billion for physical border barriers and associated technology including 200 miles of destructive and controversial new barrier construction along the U.S.-Mexico border. The House bill allows for construction anywhere along the border, including Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, a crucial wildlife habitat corridor.
For additional information on border wall impacts to wildlife and wild lands, please see Defenders of Wildlife’s recently released report, “In The Shadow of The Wall”.
Mary Beth Beetham, director of legislative affairs for Defenders of Wildlife, issued this statement:
“Funding more of Trump’s border wall should be a non-starter. Unfortunately, this bill is another attempt to undermine binational collaboration and divide wildlife and people along our southern border. Bringing Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge back on the table for wall construction is a punch in the gut. Both wildlife and human communities depend on the incredibly rich landscape of the refuge and building a wall through it would cause irreversible damage. Allocating funding for 200 miles of new physical barriers would insure imperiled species like the jaguar and Mexican gray wolf will have no chance of recovery in the U.S.”
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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