Given the choice between protecting American security and protecting birds and illegal immigrants, regulators in California have no problem deciding. Apparently, they don't believe we are at war.
California regulators on Wednesday denied a Department of Homeland Security request to fortify the westernmost stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border, setting the stage for a possible legal battle between the state and the Bush administration.Posted by Alan at March 1, 2004 06:33 AMThe California Coastal Commission, in a 10-0 vote, found that the harm the project would cause to sensitive habitats outweighed the security benefits provided by filling in canyons and erecting additional fences along the final 3 1/2 miles of the border before it meets the ocean.
The Border Patrol said proposed alternatives, such as switchback roads through the gulch, would leave gaps in enforcement. The agency's apprehensions fell to 16,000 last year, a decline of 88 percent since the federal government launched a crackdown in 1994, erecting fences, adding patrols and installing lights and motion sensors.
Steep, unimproved roads were responsible for the death of three San Diego-based Border Patrol agents over the past two years. In addition, agents also are pelted by rocks and debris hurled from the Mexican side of the border.
"I think we should defer to the people who put their lives on the line out there in very difficult situations," said U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, who long has advocated beefing up the border.
Hunter, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the commission's "nutty decision" ignored the risk of a terrorist slipping across the border to attack San Diego's Navy bases.
Tip via The Braden Files