Rainfall that runs downhill from Mexico is stopped by debris caught in the mesh fence and an adjoining raised road, Mr. Ladd says. The water is diverted to other areas, causing floods and soil erosion on his property.
Mr. Ladd, 57, thinks the bill would allow the Border Patrol to “run roughshod” over ranches and farms.
“Be careful what you wish for — they’re going to tear it up,” Mr. Ladd tells other ranchers. “Once they get in, it pretty well turns into a parking lot. It’s really hard to get them out.”
Mr. Ladd says the 37 miles of roads on his ranch are enough for the Border Patrol’s needs.
“Why do you need new ones?” he asks.
The Interior Department raised concerns in a survey of Arizona’s Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge last year that found nearly 8,000 miles of off-road vehicle trails, blaming much of it on smuggling and Border Patrol activity. It urged the Border Patrol to rely on such tools as radars and cameras, which are less threatening to wildlife.
Critics of the Border Patrol’s growth long have called new fences, roads and other infrastructure a threat to Sonoran pronghorn, Mexican grey wolves, jaguars and other border wildlife.
A Government Accountability Office report in 2010 offered fodder for both sides of the debate. It found Border Patrol supervisors generally felt that land laws didn’t hinder them on the job but that the agency sometimes encountered roadblocks. An unnamed agency took four months to review a Border Patrol request to move a camera tower in Arizona, by which time traffic had moved to another area.
Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat who has led opposition to the bill, which largely has split along party lines, calls the effort a disguised step toward repealing environmental laws.
“The border has become a very convenient excuse to [alter] laws that have been on the books for four or five decades,” he said. “You plant your flag on the 100 miles (of border) and then build from there.”
Mr. Bishop dismisses that criticism as a scare tactic and a “lousy argument.”
“Sovereign countries control their borders. Anything that stops us from that is a violation of why we are a nation,” he said.
'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Although contemporary American politics is an unforgiving environment, it’s still wide open to implement a legitimate worldview based on timeless Biblical values.
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