Wildlife conservationists say the existing barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border are already detrimental to wildlife. U.S. Congressman Raul Grijalva said President Donald Trump’s proposed uninterrupted wall would be worse.
Congressman Grijalva, a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, said a border wall would cut off wildlife corridors for animals.
The Democratic representative for Arizona’s District 3 said immigration reform is needed but border barriers represent an enforcement policy that doesn’t work and harms the environment.
"The species that are in the Sonoran Desert and in those mountainous areas along our border—they have no understanding of what is a border line and what is not. So the wall then becomes a problem for access and quite frankly begins to imperil that species and that wildlife," said Grijalva.
Grijalva also raised the issue of the sovereignty of Native American nations, noting that the wall would cut through the Tohono O'odham Nation reservation. The Nation has publicly declared its opposition to the construction of a wall on its land.