Ecological Crisis

The Impact of a Border Wall on Creatures and their Homes
By Kathleen Bonnette, Th.D., Assistant Director, JPIC

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In recent months, public discourse in the U.S. was dominated by “The Border Wall.” Analysts have been debating the usefulness of a wall for securing our border, and its potential for success in constraining illegal migration. The economic, cultural, and political consequences of funding and constructing a wall have been discussed ad nauseum, and there is outrage on all sides concerning the moral necessity or harm of a wall. Largely absent from the discussion, however, has been consideration of the environmental impact of a border wall.

The ecosystems near projected building sites will be trampled, bisected, and made unsafe as wall construction occurs and a finished barrier changes the landscape. Further, like many of the people in the southern border region, animals there embody a binational lifestyle, and they, too, will feel the effects of a physical barrier. 

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