The previous president once described his stupid and racist border fencing as “virtually impenetrable.” No one told that to Mother Nature. A viral photo shared by Madrean Archipelago Wildlife Center founder and wildlife preservationist Kate Scott shows portions of fencing built by the previous president along the Arizona-Mexico border in shambles following a recent monsoon.
“Trump's brand new $15 billion #BorderWall is being ripped apart by monsoon floods,” Center for Biological Diversity borderland campaigner Laiken Jordahl responded to the image. While the photo tweeted by Scott shows at least four partitions knocked out of their hinges, Gizmodo reports that Cuenca de Los Ojo director José Manuel Pérez Cantú said six were damaged.
“The damage took place near San Bernardino Ranch, a historic site that sits between Douglas, Arizona, and the San Bernardino Wildlife Refuge,” Gizmodo reported. “Douglas has seen nearly double its average monsoon season rainfall so far, including a blast that came through on Monday and unleashed flooding on the Arizona-Sonora border. The National Weather Service data shows 2.15 inches (5.5 centimeters) of rain fell, which in turn funneled into washes and drove flooding.”
“This is what happens when @DHSgov waives all environmental laws & ignores basic science to put up a political prop,” Jordahl continued in his tweet. He wrote in The New York Times last year that a law passed by Congress in 2005 “included a provision that allows the secretary of homeland security to waive laws that the secretary deems an impediment to building walls and roads along U.S. borders.” But this provision allowing administrations to waive law has been a bipartisan effort when it comes to the border. “All of the border walls built or replaced during the Obama-Biden administration relied upon the waivers of federal laws issued under the Bush administration,” South Texas College Assistant Professor Scott Nicol wrote last year.
Still, the previous administration took a sordid pleasure in its destruction of the borderlands. Following President Biden’s win, the previous administration rushed to dynamite mountains, knowing full well it wouldn’t have time to build. In the end, we’ve left with very-penetrable “impenetrable” fencing that has fallen to both storms and $100 saws from your local hardware store—and no, it doesn’t make a difference who’s built the damn thing.
ProPublica and The Texas Tribune wrote last year that privately-funded fencing near Mission, Texas was on the verge of collapse. A University of Texas at El Paso engineering professor who reviewed engineering reports said builders were “cutting corners everywhere. It’s not a Lamborghini, it’s a $500 used car.” This was the scheme that landed white nationalist Steve Bannon felony charges. The former president ultimately pardoned him.
President Biden has made the right moves by halting wall construction, returning billions swindled by the previous administration, and canceling wall contracts. The administration has also said it would be using appropriated funds “to address urgent life, safety, and environmental issues” stemming from wall construction.
“The damage the border wall has inflicted in just the past year is incalculable,” Jordahl continued in The Times. “Much of it will last forever. No amount of money could repay the O’odham and all Indigenous people of the borderlands for the sacred sites, cultural history, and natural heritage that’s been destroyed. To right these wrongs, we must start somewhere. Tearing down the wall would be a good start.” Nicol agreed in his piece, writing the administration “should tear down walls that rip apart endangered species habitat. They should tear down walls that cut through border communities, casting prison-bar shadows on a child’s bedroom window.”
And while it’s not words she’s using, Mother Nature is also clearly stating that border walls just don’t work.
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