Remember Robert Fulghum? He became famous in 1988 with a book called
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. It was a
pop-culture hit, a little wise, a little goofy, one of those books that
finds its moment, and bam! The whole country knows about it.
I’ve been thinking about Kindergarten lately, and the trash
dumped on our borderlands by illegal aliens. The connection isn’t as
tenuous as it might seem, and I’ll get to it in a moment, along with a
modest proposal to deal with this huge problem.
First, a question: Have you had your holy-smokes moment yet
regarding our illegal-immigration crisis? If not, travel to Arizona’s
border region, and go off-road to the game trails, mountain passes and
grassland flats that make this area so magical.
In many places, the magic is gone, lost beneath piles of
garbage.
If such a trip is impossible, look at the pictures accompanying this
article. They should provide a jolt, a visual boot to the backside,
after which you’ll proclaim, “Holy smokes! I had no idea!”
Most people have no idea. These images should be beamed around the
country so everyone can understand Arizona’s crucible.
How much trash has been dropped since this invasion began? Try 24
million pounds, from the Colorado River to the New Mexico line. The
federal Bureau of Land Management made that estimate in 2007 and called
it conservative. The agency uses a formula of eight pounds of trash
dropped per day, per person.
Based on this, we can look at certain federal lands and understand
the extent of the pileup. For example, at the peak of traffic in 2004
and 2005, the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge near Sasabe,
southwest of Tucson, was getting 2,000 crossings a day, and that
translates to 16,000 pounds of trash a day.
In the early 2000s, the Tohono O’odham Reservation was getting 1,500
crossers daily and 12,000 pounds of trash. The tribe now has workers
who march out several times a week to do cleanups, says Gary Olson,
administrator of the tribe’s solid-waste program. Between September
2004 and December 2008, his workers removed 106 tons.
But aren’t arrest numbers down? Fewer crossers mean less garbage,
right?
Yes, although nobody should be jumping for joy. In the 262-mile-wide
Tucson sector, the number of crossings has gone from ridiculous to
merely intolerable.
In 2005, sector agents made an average of 1,205 arrests a day. Last
year, the number was down to 870 daily—which translates to 7,000
pounds of trash.
But remember: Those who get through outnumber arrests by at least
3-to-1. So the real figure is probably closer to 21,000 pounds dropped
… every 24 hours.
In the sheer numbers of people, this is a historic migration, far
bigger than the 1848 California gold rush—and those grubby,
gallant, greedy gold rushers also gave this land a good thrashing.
As the conservation scientist Gary Nabhan tells me, the garbage
being left behind today will scar our state’s landscape into the 22nd
century.
But there is good news, too. Serious cleanup efforts are underway.
In January 2007, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
launched a cleanup campaign targeted at nonfederal lands within 100
kilometers of the border. Since then, working mainly with volunteers,
the state’s Undocumented Migrant Waste Program has collected 56 tons of
trash, in areas such as those along the Santa Cruz River near Tubac and
Tumacacori, on ranches around Arivaca, and on private land near
Douglas.
In December, ADEQ joined the Borderlands Management Task
Force—a consortium that includes federal land managers, tribes
and state agencies—to coordinate a border-wide Arizona
cleanup.
Its goals, according to Frank Zadroga, manager of Environmental
Quality’s UDM waste program, include launching a Web site, probably by
fall, which will serve as a one-stop data hub. It will also collect
citizen tips about the location of dumps, which are being found in
ever-more remote and sensitive areas.
The Bureau of Land Management has been the major player in picking
up garbage on the border since 2003. That year, the agency began its
Southern Arizona Project, designed to fix the widespread environmental
damage done by illegal aliens and drug smugglers.
The agency doles out taxpayer cash—more than $5 million since
2003—to private and government groups to do this work, and trash
collection is part of it. BLM spurs the pickup of about 230,000 pounds
a year.
All of this signals hope. Pride of place and home is important, and
the emphasis on volunteers brings together people who, even if they
agree on nothing else, can agree that our borderlands should be
restored to their pre-invasion beauty.
Understand the difficulty of the task. The amount of trash still
littering Arizona’s landscape tops by several times the amount that has
been picked up, says Kathy Pedrick, who administers BLM’s project.
In addition to being in remote areas, these dumpsites are also
high-crime zones. After all, drug smugglers often use the same trails
as people smugglers. The best routes into our country are bought, and
the cartels don’t like anyone mucking around on land they’ve paid good
money to control.
Another problem: ADEQ officials say the sites can be contaminated
with bio-hazardous waste. What else might be in these dumps? Are
communicable diseases present?
The accompanying photograph to the left shows a site below Diablito
Mountain, 5 miles west of Interstate 19 and 21 miles north of Nogales.
Illegals reach this wash after emerging from the Tumacacori Mountains,
which are also trashed out. The litter at Diablito, on state land, was
so solid that you could walk a half-mile without your feet touching the
sand. In border-speak, the site is called a layup.
When illegals prepare to meet their pickup rides, they often drop
everything to better squeeze into getaway vehicles. They switch from
hiking clothes into street clothes, and off they go, to Los Angeles,
Fargo, N.D., Lewiston, Maine, and everywhere in between. The majority
of the trash is backpacks, clothing, food cans, toothpaste, toys, water
bottles.
But the Diablito site, like dozens of others, includes piles of
human feces, tampons, medicines, syringes and even used condoms.
“If a sick person discards a medicine bottle, anyone picking it up
might be exposing himself,” says veterinarian Gary Thrasher, who
travels the borderlands daily in his work. “You see guys joking around,
picking up clothes and hats from these dumps and wearing them. I don’t
know what they’re thinking. People are coming across from down in
southern Mexico, and there are lots of problems you can run into,
including cholera.”
The health risk makes land managers leery of using volunteer cleanup
crews, says Keith Graves, former Coronado National Forest district
ranger in Nogales, and now the border liaison between the forest and
the Secure Border Initiative.
“It’s hard to find volunteers we feel comfortable with,” he says.
“We have them sign agreements, and that basically makes them federal
employees. So if they get injured, we pay for it. We can’t control what
they pick up.”
Some blame the Border Patrol for pushing illegals, and therefore
trash, farther out into previously undisturbed land. That has happened
on national forest land and on Tohono O’odham land, where illegals,
because of increased enforcement, spend more time and probably drop
more trash.
“The more the cats will play, the more the mice have to hide,” says
Olson. “There are a lot more cats now.”
Olson acknowledges the trade-off, but says he’s grateful for Border
Patrol help, which—coupled with a declining economy—has
brought the number of crossings on the reservation down to an estimated
200 to 300 a day.
Even so, on the reservation and elsewhere, we’re still talking about
lots of people and vehicles. Smugglers load trucks with people or drugs
and drive into the country, destroying vegetation and natural springs,
and causing serious erosion. On some of our borderlands, enforcement
has cut down these drive-throughs.
Officials in the Buenos Aires, for example, used to find 100
smuggler vehicles a year on its land. But manager Mike Hawkes says new
fencing has cut that number dramatically. “Last year, we had one,” he
says. Those vehicles, when abandoned, become a form of litter.
But the problem hasn’t been eliminated, and much damage has already
been done—in the introduction of nonnative seeds, especially
buffelgrass. (See “State of the Desert,” March 5.) It is widespread in
Sonora and enters our country on the wind, on water and on the clothing
of the millions of illegals who’ve already passed through our deserts.
It also enters on the tires of smuggler vehicles. The seeds drop in the
desert, germinate and grow rapidly. Buffelgrass forces native plants to
compete for moisture and space, and it has introduced fire as a major
player in the Sonoran Desert.
In the past, fires rarely produced big blazes in the desert. But
today, if illegals don’t extinguish their cook fire, or they set a fire
to distract law enforcement and then abandon it—two common
events—the result can be a runaway fire fueled by buffelgrass.
These fires kill plants and trees that set up the desert’s entire
regeneration process, and the potential impact is huge.
“We have preliminary evidence that fire changes the whole structure
of desert habitats,” says Nabhan, now with UA’s Southwest Center. “Once
a fire moves through, it knocks back the nurse trees and permanently
alters the desert’s capacity to heal itself.
“This isn’t hypothetical. We’re seeing it from Hermosillo, Mexico,
north in a million places.”
Prowling these border dumps provides the equivalent of a
graduate-level seminar on what illegal immigration really is, and as
importantly, what it’s not. No critical national issue attracts more
lame thinking, a good example being the woman who told the Douglas
Dispatch in January that border trash tells stories of “hardship
and hope.” A visitor from Iowa, she ventured out with a church group to
help ADEQ in a cleanup.
I admire her civic spirit. But she’s delusional. The hardship is
mostly self-imposed, and there is no hope in garbage.
We know the crossers are a religious bunch, because of the Catholic
medallions, statues and Bibles they drop, and we know they’re
superstitious. The litter almost always includes garlic cloves:
Illegals hang them from backpacks in the false belief that the scent
will keep rattlesnakes away from their campsites.
Some call illegal aliens “undocumented,” but the truth is they have
documents falling out of their pockets, literally. Examine the ground,
and you’ll find driver’s licenses, birth certificates and passports,
most of them forged.
From the Pokémon backpacks, diapers and infant formula, we
know the crossers include children. But their debris is often mixed
with tequila bottles and pornography. Another item sure to boil the
blood: Spanish-language books advising illegals on their rights in the
United States.
Less common—but surprisingly present—is evidence that
our border has become an international crossing.
As I’ve reported previously in these pages, we know Arabs are
coming, from the discovery of three prayer rugs near Douglas and an
Arabic diary inside a backpack in Hereford. In 2004, a rancher west of
Fort Huachuca answered his door to greet a female illegal wanting to
use the phone. The call was to Libya.
A while back, I got an e-mail about a pair of Russian night-vision
goggles found near Sonoita. Best guess? They were probably left by drug
smugglers. Anna Magoffin and her husband, Matt, who live east of
Douglas, found a scarf marked with the word Kaibil—the
name of Guatemala’s special forces. The Border Patrol has found
machetes and brass knuckles at border dumps, as well as a bulletproof
vest more sophisticated than what our troops in Iraq use. The vest,
pictured here, is strong enough to repel multiple rifle shots.
Agents also collect statues and necklaces honoring Mexico’s
legendary narco saint, Jesus Malverde. Drug dealers pray to him before
bringing their poison into our country. They’re helped by scouts hiding
out on mountain tops. At one such lookout, agents found a two-way radio
powered by a motorcycle battery, and this, in turn, was rigged to a
solar panel the size of a computer screen.
Consider, too, the ugly reality of the rape tree, often found at
dump sites. The coyotes who lead groups into the country will sometimes
peel a woman out of the group, rape her and hang her panties from a
tree as a kind of trophy. The rape tree pictured here was part of a
massive dump in the heavily trafficked Altar Valley.
As the Border Patrol’s Mike Scioli says, the underwear is a message
to the next coyote coming along—who is, after all, a co-worker of
the first one.
“It’s like saying, ‘Look what I did, guys. Now let’s see what you
can do,'” says Scioli.
But a site as big as the one pictured might contain anything. This
one also had strips of burlap used to wrap marijuana bundles, black
masks with holes for the eyes and mouth, and a day planner listing a
series of phone numbers, including one for coyote Rosa Lima.
When I ask land managers and ecologists about the impact of this
trash on wildlife, on water quality, on our deserts overall, the
answers are hedging and elusive, with good reason: Little hard research
has been done. “I know everybody is worried about it, but nobody has
really studied it,” says Thrasher.
It probably won’t be studied in the near future, either. The reason,
in part, says Nabhan, is our government’s emphasis on security, which
has made it difficult to actually get to the border. He used to walk
from Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, in Southwest Arizona, into
Sonora to work.
“If you want to do that now, Homeland Security sends your passport
back to Washington,” Nabhan says. “Our ability to work on the border
has really been knocked back. Even if you get a permit, it’s dangerous
to be out there.”
The agency that would do such studies, the Arizona Game and Fish
Department, has not done them because of the danger. “We haven’t looked
at these questions directly, mostly because we’re afraid to put our
biologists into these areas,” says Gabriel Paz, a law enforcement
program manager for Game and Fish. “There are too many border
bandits.”
But the silence of the big environmental groups plays a role, too.
They should be hollering from tallest buildings about border trash, but
they aren’t. Making too much noise might turn off the open-borders
liberals they rely on for donations. However, many individual
environmentalists have done great work as volunteers, through hiking
clubs, hunting clubs and other organizations, to clean up the
messes.
So politics and the border war conspire to keep us in the dark on
border trash.
But scientists know any omnivore that smells food will poke around
in it, which explains why garbage has been found in the stomachs of
bears and deer. “We know wildlife is chewing on this stuff, but we
don’t know the effects,” says Darrell Tersey, natural resources
specialist at Ironwood Forest National Monument, north and west of
metro Tucson.
In one case, though, the effects are not in doubt: When a cow
ingests a plastic bag, it can clog the stomach, and the animal usually
dies in agony. These bags now blow across our borderlands like
tumbleweeds.
Last fall, Wendy and Warner Glenn found a sick calf on their ranch
near Douglas. It was standing with its forehead against a tree,
grinding its teeth in terrible stomach pain. The vet, unsure what was
wrong, primarily treated the animal for the pain, after which the
Glenns brought it home.
But when they went out to the corral the next morning, the calf was
dead. Wendy and Warner butchered the animal to learn the cause and
discovered a yellow plastic bag blocking portions of its stomach. “It
could’ve been suffering for several days before we found it,” says
Wendy.
Cattle also eat clothes. “I’ve seen cattle eating clothing to get
the salts, and gone back later and found the cow dead,” says Keith
Graves.
The desert tortoise is particularly susceptible to the ill effects
of alien trash. These critters live in rocky wash banks heavy with
vegetation and shade, the same areas where illegals lay up. And the
tortoises are slow to reproduce, meaning any knock-back in its
population will take a long time to replenish.
Officials at the Ironwood—where 3,000 pounds of trash a year
are removed, some left by local citizens—suspected such a
population decline and studied the question in 2002. Results were
inconclusive. But the authors cited the observation of a longtime
resident who has seen fewer tortoises since illegals began using the
area in such big numbers.
This fellow also has encountered aliens carrying desert tortoises,
and so have staffers at the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, both in Southwest Arizona. The
reason? Probably to cook and eat.
Curt McCasland, manager at the Cabeza, says they’ve also found the
shells of five tortoises among the litter at trash dumps. “We don’t
know if the trash killed the tortoises, or if the migrants consumed the
tortoises,” says McCasland. “We’re not sure what’s happening. We’re too
busy monitoring the impacts of illegal immigration on our wilderness
areas and haven’t had time or money to study tortoises.”
As for the water supply, it would seem to be especially vulnerable,
because these trash dumps are often found at water sources. Some
ranchers have reported their wells are contaminated with fecal
bacteria, likely the result of so many illegal aliens defecating near
water sources. But this issue, too, needs more study.
On national forest land, says Graves, the contamination of wells is
less of an issue than the fouling of drinking water for wildlife, such
as at open stock tanks. “The contamination there is very high,” he
says. Open stock tanks are pits in the ground, usually associated with
a stream system. Illegals and animals gather at the tanks and defecate,
and when it rains, the waste gets into the tanks, creating sewage-like
conditions in summertime.
“If you fill a water bottle at one of these tanks, it has more
protein in it than a protein shake because of the animal and human
fecal matter,” says Graves.
There’s one additional issue these dumpsites clarify: Illegal
immigration into Arizona is just a vast border-area problem,
correct?
Not even close. A lot of the trash pickup at the Ironwood takes
place on trails threading around Silverbell Mine, 75 miles north of the
line. BLM has cleaned alien layups in metro Phoenix and, incredibly, in
the Agua Fria National Monument, 40 miles north of central
Phoenix.
Illegal alien trash dumps can also be found within the Tucson city
limits. Want to see one? Drive east from downtown on Interstate 10,
exit at Wilmot Road, and turn left. Follow Wilmot for 1.4 miles; turn
left onto the dirt path, park and follow the garbage.
Some of it, on the fringes, is urban trash left by nearby residents.
But if you walk back toward the interstate, or west toward the Pima Air
and Space Museum, the ground overflows with clothes, backpacks, water
bottles and plastic trash bags, which illegals use as raincoats.
When groups hole up here waiting for their pickup rides, they’re
aided by locals who make money delivering food and drinks. The evidence
is all over the ground, in discarded pizza boxes, Kentucky Fried
Chicken tubs and soft-drink containers.
The area looks as if it has been carpet-bombed.
The challenge now is not just to maintain cleanup efforts, but to
intensify them. It’s necessary, because the illegals are still coming,
and we can even expect the flow to pick up in the future, thanks to two
decisions by Democratic leaders in Washington, D.C., regarding the
E-Verify program. This Internet system, which checks information from a
prospective worker against data from the Social Security
Administration, is the fairest, most effective method employers have of
ensuring that new hires are legally OK to work in the United
States.
But President Obama, who supported E-Verify while campaigning, and
the Democrats stripped E-Verify from the stimulus package, meaning
companies getting stimulus money aren’t required to use the system.
Funding for E-Verify runs out in September. Anyone want to guess
whether the Democrats will reauthorize it? Don’t bet on it.
The message this sends is obvious: If you’re living here illegally
now and need work, or are considering jumping the border tomorrow to
find work, the gringos are again winking at their own laws. When the
economy picks up, expect crossings to pick up, too, with all of the
attendant troubles, including more trash.
But restoring our borderlands, our beloved home, is not impossible.
It will take work and persistence, as well as an appreciation of one
undeniable, timeless and ultimately redemptive premise: If you drop
something, you should pick it up.
The Border Patrol has agents keep garbage bags in their vehicles,
and after making arrests at a layup, they sometimes hand the bags to
the illegals and tell them to get busy. It’s a great idea. But the
concept needs an expansion, and that dovetails nicely with my proposal:
Every day, near heavily crossed areas, the Border Patrol keeps buses
ready to haul away the day’s arrest harvest. The illegals are processed
through law-enforcement computers and often pushed back into Mexico.
Before doing that, shouldn’t we put them to work? With the buses
already there, it wouldn’t require a huge effort to force them to clean
up their own mess.
It’s one of the bits of wisdom that made Fulghum’s book a hit: All
we need are trash bags, stick-spears and the proper amount of righteous
indignation. It’ll make kindergarten teachers everywhere smile.
This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2009.
Oh, please…using the environment’s health to prop up a racist agenda is infuriating, absolutely transparent, and rather unoriginal. We should be upset about the Earth’s destruction, to be sure, but guess which communities suffer most from pollution, bad air, and tainted water? Poor ones, especially those in poor countries. Guess which nation produces the most waste per capita? Why yes, it is the wealthier United States. If people want to do something productive about litter, then I agree, let’s all get out there and pick it up. But while we’re at it, we might also ask how it is that we’re able to maintain our lifestyle of consumerism and waste, which causes far greater environmental destruction than the so-called “aliens” who cross the border in hopes of supporting themselves and their families.
I am really upset about the trashing of our desert, mainly by illegals, but also by us…my solution for most of this problem is to walk (since that’s the way they arrived) the illegals back to Mexico. And while they’re walking back, give them a trash bag and have them clean our desert…
I was so disturbed to see the photos of the destruction of our desert. It really brought home for me the sheer enormity of how many people cross through every day. It’s an extremely dangerous journey, and it’s unfortunate that U.S. policies have something to do with why so many people choose to undertake it.
I was equally disturbed by this article’s discussion of “rape trees” as if they were fact. This story has been popularized on the Internet by the Minutemen and similar groups, but so far there is no documented evidence at all that it is anything more than an urban legend or propaganda. At least, there has not been a case of a reported rape connected with any of these “rape trees.” This claim makes me suspicious about other points in the story. What about those prayer rugs found out there? Did the author see the prayer rugs or talk to someone who had? Or did they talk to a BP agent who heard that another BP agent somewhere found prayer rugs, etc.? Rumors abound.
“The hardship is self-imposed.” An inflamatory statement with nothing to back it up except for the author’s bigotry. Yes, there’s a lot of trash in the desert, but it’s not as harmful as the type of trash like this in the media
What about our trash – the twenty-plus miles of toxic mine tailings along I-19? All the clothes and bottles the migrants leave behind can be picked up but the degradation and pollution from the mine tailings is forever.
the weekly has banks write stories like this because people getting upset sells papers, gets clicks on the new super duper web page.
its the formula of fox not “alternative” media whose family they they pretend to be a part of.
same with the tom d. columns
the rape trees are urban myth presented as fact.
don’t take their bait.
if you really want to do something about the weekly’s coverage, stop patronizing their advertisers.
money is the bottom line with them…
Mr. Banks’ article deals with only a small piece of the crisis we see in our desert. What disturbs me most about this article is the lack of concern for the people who are risking their lives in our desert, hoping to be able to support their families. We have just received a report that the remains of 48 people have been found in our desert since January. Where is the outrage about that? Does Mr. Banks ever wonder about the desperation that drives people to take such risks? Does he ever consider the role of US trade and border policies in creating this humanitarian crisis? Yes, cleaning up the desert is important. (Many of us participate regularly in such efforts.) But ending the injustices which are the root causes of migrant suffering and deaths as well as the desert trash is the real challenge.
Only those who live in cities and never hike into or live near the beautiful borderlands would say that a report on the tons of garbage and human waste that we encounter and try to clean up has ANYTHING to do with racism. I personally don’t ask the race of the trashers of our ranch and am willing to spread the blame anywhere it belongs! Only city dwellers who have managed to ignore the graffiti which now destroys much of the old Tucson in which many of us grew up can possibly ignore the reality of the ugliness and environmental devastation and claim that Leo Banks’ story is simply racism disguised as concern. Pull your head out! Denying that such problems exists is simply stupidity!
Dena Kay
Jarillas Ranch, on the border!!!!!
— if you really want to do something about the weekly’s coverage, stop patronizing their advertisers.
actually i want to restate that, because it is not fair to penalize local biz.
so keep buying local. it’s the right thing to do.
however, the next time you stop by your favorite place to eat or drink or buy whatever let them know your thoughts on the weekly’s coverage, the way they play fast and loose with the facts.
(heck i think they even photo shopped that picture on the front page).
lets see if we can get advertisers to support “a week without the weekly”
suggest they switch their advertising dollars to another local pub like green times (actually this is already happening).
if we could get the rialto, club congress, providence institute, and a few other places to take a stand maybe these types of inflamitory stories would become a bit more balanced.
it’s worth a try…
Leo Banks doesn’t have a racist bone in his body. He has reported with integrity in Arizona for many years. Don’t kill the messenger.
I read the moronic comments made above by erinhansbrough, susanlantz and elbesco. Having spent at least one day per week for three years documenting the border illegal activities I can attest to every fact stated in the article. I spend considerable time explaining the problem to civic groups, radio shows and to political entities. I’m sought out because I’ve never been proven wrong on the subject and I charge nothing for the service. Racist, says erinhansbrough….Which race? Nearly 4% are not Mexicans who cross. It’s easy to cry Racist when one has no other argument to give. Susanlantz doubts the rape trees and calls them urban legends. I’ve seen and documented them. 46% of all women returned to Mexico and interviewed by the “Samaritan” organization admit to being raped. Several weeks ago two sisters 18 & 14 stumbled out onto Hwy. 19, both having been raped repeated by their guide for three days. Elbesco seems to not be worried about diseases or the harmful trash. I’d suggest he (and the rest of the doubters) google “Dr. Madeleine Cosman and read her report called “Hospital to the world welcomes illegal aliens”. She was, before she died, the world’s prominent authority on the spread of communicable diseases and how they come to our country. She was also a primary contributor to the Center for Disease Control. You deniers and doubters might consider getting your head out of the sand and spending some time walking in the desert sand we speak of. I could find NOTHING in this article that isn’t factual…..and I know the facts because I spend time searching for the truth !!
It is a pleasant surprise to see an alternative media publication print a balanced article relating to the chaos caused by the lack of law enforcement on our southern border.
To “Sinking Ship”……you have a major hole in your hull sir!!! How many photos would you like of the Mt. Diablito lay up site that you call a work from photoshop? I have several dozen. There are so many back packs in one area that some actually blocked a ravine after the monsoons. I have many dozen more of other sites. NO the rape trees are well documented by BP agents and those who make their business to know what’s going on in the desert. To Susanlanz, do 15 or 20 used condoms clustered together under one of these trees (actually bushes) do you think they’re from a couple of lovers or from a group of crossers taking what they want from a fellow traveler? What amazes me most is that totally uninformed people write the trash such as “Sinking Ship” and other fools take it as the truth. Having studied these issues for years I can tell you frankly that Mr. Banks article is without flaw….PERIOD. Get off your rear ends and visit the desert like we do.
Wow. Do you know how proud Lou Dobbs would be of this article? Giving us an argument that a.) tugs at our heart strings with valid issues (insert pollution/littering here), but b.) targets those who can’t really fight back (insert any Mexican group here).
…because you know Americans have nothing to do with trashing the environment.
Come on, Tucson. I thought we were better informed than this. This whole article blames our neighbors for our own ridiculous consumption and consumerism. Yeah, migrants might have to shed some of their clothing, food and water containers as they’re running around perilous cliffs, avoiding the spotlight of choppers overhead, focusing on the hope of a better life for their families. But I guarantee that if that hope is fulfilled, they’ll be picking up more of our trash than they could have ever left on their own. Will they have time to complain as they work with no rights?
I’ve made a few trips to help clean up some regular migrant trails. Maybe if everyone just attempted one trip out to our border, with this in mind, we could have a better understanding of WHY so much is left behind. These are our brothers and sisters that we are so easily blaming.
I’m really surprised the Weekly would publish this. This is so full of cheap inflamatory rhetoric attempting to try to manipulate readers to position environmental interests against immigrant interests that it insults the reader. This is political boosterism to justify the militarization that is taking place, and can barely be called journalism.
If the author is really concerned about this problem, maybe he should have also taken a look at all the trash that the US exports each year, which ends up contaminating poor countries, and looked again at the causes of immigration (NAFTA), to at least have some educational value. Or are we only supposed to hippocritically care about what happens in our back yard?
Shame on the Weekly for publishing this trash.
You should take a look at my neighborhood just north of the U of A campus on a Sunday morning. Multiply the trash a few frat boys throw on my lawn a thousand times and you’ll get a much more graffic photo than what’s on the Weekly cover.
Predictably, “TheSearcher” refers to the late Dr. Madeleine Cosman as if she’s some sort of objective authority on diseases brought into this country by undocumented immigrants, but actually she’s as well known for her racist comments about Mexican men as she is for her “research.” She’s the character responsible for Lou Dobbs’ bogus statement that illegal immigrants were responsible for 7,000 cases of leprosy in the U.S. within a three year period–a lie repudiated by the Centers for Disease Control, and which led to Dobbs himself referring to Cosman as a “Wack Job.” So if your searching for the truth, TheSearcher,keep looking because you are no where near it. And by the way, I’m elbeso, not “elbesco” as you (again) wrongly asserted.
Spanish First then Translation for “El Beso”…”the kiss”
buenas noches “el beso”, Como un hombre hispano esto me pone enfermo que los idiotas como usted nos causan tal vergüenza. Usted debe saber de las enfermedades que tenemos en el sur. Usted debe saber de los criminales que profanan este gran país América. Quizás usted sería mejor para volver al viejo país y trabajo para corregir el pozo negro de corrupción. Vine aquí legalmente y estoy orgulloso ser …. americano no un racista.
good evening “the kiss”, As a Hispanic man it sickens me that idiots such as you cause us such shame. You must know of the diseases we have in the south. You must know of the criminals who desecrate this great country America. Perhaps you’d be better to return to the old country and work to correct the cesspool of corruption. I came here legally and am proud to be an American….not a racist.
Yellow journalism
Yellow journalism is a type of journalism that downplays legitimate news in favor of eye-catching headlines that sell more newspapers. It may feature exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, sensationalism, or unprofessional practices by news media organizations or journalists. Campbell (2001) defines Yellow Press newspapers as having daily multi-column front-page headlines covering a variety of topics, such as sports and scandal, using bold layouts (with large illustrations and perhaps color), heavy reliance on unnamed sources, and unabashed self-promotion. The term was extensively used to describe certain major New York City newspapers about 1900 as they battled for circulation. By extension the term is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion, such as systematic political bias. Yellow Journalism can also be the practice of over-dramatizing events.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journa…
Leo W. Banks loved by David Duke (Neo Nazi)
All the way back since 1996….
http://www.davidduke.com/general/living-on…
Well there is nobody to blame but ourselves. Look who you and I put in office. Governor Janet Nap. did nothing to stop the illegals then so what differents will we expect from her now. always remember “If the policy about our borders have been expressed and iterated but not enforced, than what has been said means nothing.
From the majority of the commentary up above it’s clear to see that hyprocrisy, left wing kool-aid drinking and exercises of mindless myopia are still popular pasttimes for many readers of the Tucson Weekly.
I just wrote The Mexican and asked: “When it comes to savvy political commentary, I find myself in complete agreement with everything The Mexican says regarding NAFTA, the exploitation of Illegals both in Mexico and here in America, etc.
Why then do the (mostly) white, left wing, know nothing Gabachos who write for the Tucson Weekly call me “racist” and “asshat” whenever I speak out publically against the exploitation of Mexico’s poor, shout “Viva Zapata” (long live the Mexican revolution against the rich, white Mexican upper class) and Burn the Mexican Flag which is the most visible symbol of Mexican exploitation?
I’m Warden, the Notorious Mexican Flag Burner”
Roy Warden
http://www.wardenburnsmexicanflags.com
(520) 881-0535
You can get a disease from touching a hat a Mexican wore? A scientist actually said that?
I consider myself an avid environmentalist, and the comments I’m reading here remind me of all the reasons why our movement needs to change direction.
Many ‘environmentalists’ ignore major problems and science when it doesn’t fit their world view, and we are often guilty of not offering up good solutions. For example, most environmentalists think building a wall on the border will be bad for wildlife. I completely agree, but instead of whining about how bad the wall is going to be, what we really need to be doing is interacting with BP and the government to find alternative solutions. We can’t just sit here and say ‘no’. Illegal immigration is a major problem, and itself is causing major damage to border terrain. The only way we’re ever going to win this battle is if we can bring a better alternative to the table.
We also are often against incremental change. You see environmental groups fighting against stricter standards regulations because they aren’t strict enough, when what we really need to be doing is supporting incremental changes that get a little stricter each year.
Many environmentalists are also anti-business, and are against the very entities that actually have the power and know-how to make a difference. How many companies are going to spend money on R+D for alternative energy products when their best potential customers openly hate them?
We also are killing ourselves with bad marketing. Every year I donate to the Center for Biological Diversity, because I think they do a really good job of protecting wildlife in our area. Every time I donate, about two weeks later I start getting about half an endangered forest worth of Green Peace type junk mail. Now does this junk mail present the environmental problems rationally, with scientifically backed ways that a potential donation might help solve the problem? No, the junk mail has pictures of baby seals and says something like: “If you don’t donate today, Dick Cheney will club this baby seal to death.” Being alarmist and irrational gives us a horrible image.
We (environmentalists) need to stick to science and facts and start offering solutions instead of complaints.
If there were no border, there wouldn’t be any border trash, or any migrants dying in the desert. Why do we always avoid the easy solutions? Mr. Obama, tear down that wall!
Hey, folks. Feel free to debate and squabble and even get a bit heated, but no name-calling, please. There’s no reason to go there.
Hello “Conch” Thanks for your very cogent thoughts about the wall and the environment. Having studied the border for three years I can assure you that the wildlife problems are extremely overblown. The “landing mat” fence that you see near Nogales is old and has mostly been replaced. The “bollard” fence has openings in it large enough for small ground mammals. Spaced along this type of fence are special openings large enough for Javalinas etc. but not for normal sized humans. These fences are almost always only in residential areas. The rest are vehicle barrier fences that allow any type of wildlife to cross without a problem. I’ve traveled the whole borderline and documented it. The bollard and double mesh fences pose no problem for flooding as did the “landing mat” fences. You call yourself an “environmentalist”…..I can’t think of anyone who isn’t. Check out the fences I described and keep up the good work. The real damage to our desert is the thousands of tons of trash left by the illegal aliens……I’ve seen it and its beyond comprehension and explanation.
Let’s cut to the chase here. Uncontrolled population growth is unequivocally the greatest threat to America’s environment, and not just in the once beautiful, but now obviously degraded deserts of Arizona. Those who advocate continued population growth, open borders, illegal immigration and the associated environmental destruction are true enemies of the U.S. These people, without consideration for their countrymen, their children or for wildlife, greenwash their anti-environmental, anti-sovereignty, ethnic-ascendancy agendas as concern for the environment. But if they had real concern for the environment, their rhetoric would reflect the facts. Anyone who loves Arizona must surely be appalled and revolted by what is happening in the deserts there. But this is only the tip of the iceberg of the negative environmental effects of illegal immigration. There is always room for suggestions for improved design and techniques for controlling our borders. But it falls into the category of self-evident truths that anyone who loves their country can neither espouse continued illegal immigration nor oppose the efforts to curtail it. — mb
Robby, do you actually believe what you are saying? If the borders were open do you think people would be walking through the desert to get to Tucson? Obviousely not, so open borders would not trash the country. Unless you mean lots of brown people would trash the country, in that case you might as well have the balls to come out and say that.
I’m sick to death of the same old crap that’s said about people who want secure borders. We are NOT racist, we do NOT dislike Hispanic people and we don’t want them to die in the desert. We don’t like what they do, NOT who they are. My ancestors are Scottish. I’d be just as upset if I saw a band of kilt-clad countrymen waltzing across our desert without signing the guest book. I’m close friends to a few dozen Mexican Americans and it may surprise you that they are, in most cases, more upset with the illegal immigrants than we are!!! Those with no cogent argument stoop to comments about racism and inhumanity towards our neighbors.
Has Leo Bank gotten the memo that Obama is now the president? He can now (and should) add to his graphic description of the trashing of the border of the PUSH and PULL factors of migration from Mexico to the U.S. Why doesn’t he? It’s ok, we won’t take it against him that he continues to scapegoat a vulnerable population when the truth is there is an unholy alliance between racists and craven capitalists…Scared to write about them, Leo?
Why include Leo Banks in the Weekly when you already have Tom Danehy writing absurd crap to piss people off and see how many comments he can get posted?
The author has attempted to bring forth some very important issues but I disagree with his opinion to target “illegal aliens” as the primary source of our environmental problems. If we take a look down the street of our own communities I can guarantee that trash can be found. Drive down your interstate and exit somewhere and people often through their own trash out the window as if it was their right. Why are we not blaming them? Why is it that people who smoke while driving always assume that outside of the car is their personal ashtray. Also, if we are so concerned about the dessert and environmental destruction why do we allow cattle in these so called preserved areas? Cattle are a ranchers best and worst friend. I have worked with cattle and lets just say that they are about as smart as some authors out there trying to use them as an excuse for conservation as they are about preserving the environment. I agree, we have a problem. We need to learn to work together not point the finger at someone because we feel superior and because one is democrat or republican. We need to find true solutions to the problem not spend billions on speedbumps to slow down the migrants that come up to do the work that citizens of this country wont do. Take a look at yourself in the mirror and realize that they too are just as human as you are. They are simply looking to provide for their families and if you or I were in the same situation I am sure we would attempt to cross the dessert as well.
Why can’t they use the scumbags who are overcrowding our jails and prisons and live free off of our taxes? Why can’t they be sent out to pick up the trash? And, PLEASE don’t talk to me about “prisoners’ rights”.
As usual, Leo Banks is spot on!
Many illegals crossing our southern border are not from Mexico…or even the western hemisphere…but they ALL trash it!!
Anyone who has seen it with their own eyes knows they are creating damage that will last several lifetimes.
If they have the money and energy to cross the border, they have the money and energy to fix their own countries.
..and Lorenzo, they are indeed the primary source of environmental problems along the border.
I understand very well that illegal immigration is not good for any country. But surely you hav e laws? Coming into another country without due process is against the law’ If you are not going to uphold the law then you may as well have open borders and if you do have open b orders the country will soon be in chaos. As usual it will be the people at the botton of the pile who will suffer most as there will be intense competition. for jobs and other resuources. This will lead to violence and if the numbers are such, the illegals will take over. As it appears they are coming from a culture that has failed them in some way ( it is not the actual country that is ot good, but the behaviour of the people -at least some of the people) they could very well set up those same conditions, albeit unconsciously that lead to the conditions they are escaping from. The best solution is to help the Mexican people in their own country. How? That would take a lot of thought and expertise.
This is REAL pollution– not a “theory.”
This thread proves one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt, supporters of illegals hate facts. Thank you Mr. Banks for an eye opening article.
Sir & Sirs,
I have just got this web site and have been reading a lot lately, i think that we the people of the UNITED STATES and you folks in Arizona should take a closser look at things down there.
The creeps that are crossing at night and getting cought should be jailed and made to go out on a chain gang and clean up the crap and litter they are leaving strewened all over our land there, show them that we the people of AMERICA will truly give them a job and work for 2 weeks with no rest and then ship there butts back across the border to Mexico , maby there will think twice when trying to get here illegaly,,
George
OMIGOSH!! Illegal aliens, folks!! How much clearer than that do you want? They pay no taxes, yet are on Medicare and state aid and have their children educated by LEGAL TAXPAYERS. I don’t blame them for coming to the U.S., we are the greatest nation on the earth. However, they need to do it legally. That’s all we ask.
Every time one of these persons are cuaght the Border Patrol dhould give them a box of #50 Hefty Yard Sacks and make their damn asses fill every damn one of them and then send their asses back to where the hell they came from.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. YOU can make a difference! START HERE: http://www.fairus.org/site/PageNavigator/a…
I read this article and got increasingly upset. My husband and I are government workers who are retiring with pensions and savings to buy a house. We have been looking in AZ but no more. AZ residents themselves, especially Tucson, don’t want to crack down on illegal immigration. We are looking in other states to move to and to bring our money. In our home state of MD, we spend several hours a week cleaning up the environment, mostly removing exotic invasives from parks. My husband is the head of the local Habitat Restoration Team, and we expect that the next place we move to, we will become involved in environmental work. But not in AZ.
Mexican is not a race. Hispanic is. Being concerned about the environment is not an “excuse for a racist agenda” — taking care of the environment is part of the Responsibility and Obligation of being a citizen of the US that goes along with all the “Rights” everyone is spouting off about.
Illegal is Illegal. How is this confusing to anyone? Not only are they illegal by walking into this country without going through channels, they are committing a crime by leaving the trash, killing desert tortoises for food, and contaminating the water supply. Illegal is Illegal. Period. Legal Hispanics should be glad they are finally doing something. Legal Hispanics run a much higher risk in Arizona of Identity Theft, Kidnapping, and Home Invasions due to mistaken identity than they do of being harassed by the cops. Live in the real world people. Go on a ride-along with a cop and see the world from their eyes. They are looking for criminal signs — gang colors, cartel tats, criminal behavior. Our cops don’t have the luxury of time to just go around bothering people because they are “brown” — Just as all Mexicans are not illegal, all cops are not Joe Arpaio. Please – if you don’t live in AZ, come here and drive the border. Spend a night in Douglas. Go see for yourself. THEN post.
It is very sad to see this happening. We need to end the illegal immigration now. If we stop the anchor babies and quit giving them rights /money they don’t deserve it might start to make a difference. We should make our immigration rules the same as Mexico’s for illegals. Jail and fines. These people have no respect for America to begin with because they can’t even respect our immigration policies and come here legally. Doesn’t surprise me they leave trash everywhere because it just shows their true character.
Every Illegal caught should be required to pick up 10 times their weight in garbage before being sent back to Mexico. If nothing else, maybe it will make them think about leaving less trash when they illegally come into America again since we know many are repeat offenders.
Leo Banks telling the truth is not bigotry or racist.
As for rape trees, I have been told by Latinas who crossed illegally into US from Mexico and El Salvador that they were raped, that a woman can expect to be raped when she crosses with coyotes.
And I think I know why the tortoises are disappearing and illegals have been seen carrying them. I had two good-sized tortoises in a naturally landscaped area with pond and waterfall in the far back garden of my home. A landscaper was coming to thin out the area, so just before he and his crew arrived I found the two tortoises and put them in large containers on a patio for safety so they would not be injured.
When the men left, the tortoises were gone! I told the landscaper and he told me his men are all “south of the border ‘immigrants’ and superstitious and they think tortoise flesh is a sexual stimulant.” They stole the tortoises to eat them in hopes of reviving their failing sexual abilities.
I have a little monument in the back area now marking what happened to the two tortoises. It is not flattering to “south of the border ‘immigrants’.”
By the way, I consider myself liberal on most issues, and I liberally want to see illegal immigration stopped! We had a successful bracero work program back in the l950s I think it was, and it is too bad we can’t do that now. There was no drug traffic back then but now drug dealers will continue crossing as long as Americans demand drugs. How can Americans be using so many tons and tons of drugs?
The Iowa church lady in Leo’s article who thinks border trash is “hardship and hope’ is definitely not a liberal. She is just plain ignorant of what is going on.
I heard about what was and still is going on in the Pristine(used to be) Coronado Desert in AZ. and I am very mad. I am Hispanic. I was born in Oakland, CA. Not a great distinction in my mind. I am 66 years young and do not like it one bit. These people are ILLEGAL. Doesn’t anyone understand or want to, the meaning of the word ILLEGAL. The government enforces it when they want to do so. This government is a waste. ALL of them. Not just Reps. and not just Demos. ALL OF THEM. They are the ones who should be tried, convicted and executed. HOW ABOUT THAT? I feel it will come to that. I’m glad I don’t live AZ. Someone would be in big trouble. Can’t stand this government. They are, for the MOST part crooks and takers just as the MEXICANS that come here. Most of them are in the same boat. WE THE PEOPLE may have to do the job ourselves. Remember one thing, WE outnumber the military and all the psycos that are supporting the Little Muslim Fraud Punk. Let’s go into the desert and CLEAN it up.
Concerned AMERICAN, Larry VELASCO
The TRASHING of Arizona is from all the people of Arizona, don’t blame one group. Just travel the road up to Mt. Lemon and look over the sides of the viewing areas. The trash of plastic and bottle are 3/4 ft high over the side of the mountain. This is not the illegals trash.
The real reason for so much trash is that Republicans will NOT pass a bottle return bill, so that plastic and glass beverage bottles can be returned for a deposit. The beverage lobbyist has bought out the Republicans, so they will not even bring up a vote for bottle returns nor can we get it on the ballot for the all in Arizona to vote on.
Majority of the trash would not happen if a bottle/plastic returns bill was passed.
So why aren’t the environmental groups fights against the Arizona Public Service that wants to charge solar panel users a $100 month fee for using solar power. Republicans are against any form of wind, solar, etc. They hate non renewable energy.
They prefer the pollution of coal and oil. Lobbyist funding to them is more important than the clean air or the health of the people.
Solar energy should be #1 in Arizona with all the sun power, but Republicans will surely defeat solar power in the next few years. They are even taxing the manufacturing of solar panels now, forcing them to leave Arizona.
@Erinhansbrough
How is it racist to oppose illegal immigration?
I’m opposed to everyone who trashes wilderness areas, and I’m opposed to everyone who settles and works here illegally, whatever the race. I’ve never understood people who think opposition to illegal immigration is “racist.” Please tell me what, specifically, is racist about wanting people to immigrate legally, and not to destroy wilderness areas?
The jobs have moved to Mexico but the illegals keep coming into our Country. Why? Because Mexico doesn’t give their people welfare, food stamps and free medical services. USA has been a very generous Country but enough is enough! Those emergency services are temporary and for the tax payers not for free loaders from other Countries working our system. They take our jobs user all of our services and send their money to their homeland Country. They come here and take take take. They fly their flags, tell everyone how great Mexico is and they love their Country. Then they flip us their middle finger at us.