Wildlife areas on border let in outlaws

Heavily armed outlaws are threatening national parks and other public lands along the Mexican border, where terrain and environmental concerns limit the range of U.S. Border Patrol agents and are complicating efforts to build a barrier ordered by Congress.

The Department of Homeland Security has allocated about $50 million to counter the ecological impact on land managed by the Interior Department and other government agencies.

But environmentalists, energized by the Democratic leadership of Congress and the White House, are pushing for additional conservation measures that Border Patrol agents fear will make it easier for Mexican gangs to operate.

Numerous Border Patrol agents interviewed by The Washington Times said drug smugglers and human traffickers are using ecologically diverse sanctuaries to evade law enforcement officials, whose access is limited in some areas to foot patrols and horseback.

Zack Taylor, a retired agent and supervisor who spent 26 years patrolling the Texas and Arizona border, said the creation of federally protected wilderness areas threatens to keep “the agency in a reactionary mode rather than proactively tackling the increasing dangers on the border.”

“The cartels want to keep their access to the north and welcome the creation of new wilderness areas that are easier to traverse for them than the ones they are already using,” Mr. Taylor said.

Rep. Ciro D. Rodriguez, a Texas Democrat whose district includes Big Bend National Park among other state and federal land, said he is seeking balance between protecting the environment and securing the border.

“Number one: We need better coordination and additional park police, as well as other Border Patrol people,” Mr. Rodriguez said.

However, he said he doubts that parks have become major transit areas for contraband goods or illegal immigrants.

“Most of the contraband items do not come through our national parks, though. The smugglers make their way to the U.S. mainly through the port of entries,” Mr. Rodriguez said.

A dozen Republican congressmen who disagree have asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the roles and conditions of U.S. officers on public lands managed by the Interior Department and the Forest Service, which is part of the Agriculture Department.

One of the lawmakers, Rep. Rob Bishop, Utah Republican, said the group was responding to complaints from border agents and other federal law enforcement officers.

“We seem to have seceded certain parts of the United States to drug runners, smugglers and some of the most vicious cartels operating along the border,” said Mr. Bishop, ranking Republican on the House Natural Resources subcommittee on national parks, forests and public lands.

As reports of violence along the border increase, the GAO study will present a comprehensive look at security in “vast wilderness regions,” Mr. Bishop said. “We want to know: Is there some way to quantify the problem so it’s not just anecdotal.”

Environmentalists are eager to save endangered plants and animals.

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