GUEST BLOG

UPDATE ON THE BORDER WALL: HOMELAND SECURITY TRUMPS NUMEROUS FEDERAL LAWS

By Kamala Platt and Nat Stone

MODERATOR'S NOTE: Our second blog entry (April 13) focused on the growing opposition to the building of the U.S.-Mexico Border Wall. In the earlier blog, we noted that the border has been increasingly subject to militarization and heightened police surveillance since the 1970s and this is severely disrupting ecological processes and human communities. The border wall will disrupt Native biological and cultural communities. It will fragment landscapes and turn the river into a strait-jacketed political force that divides living symbiotic communities. The struggle against The Wall reminds us that the river is instead a natural force that binds us together in "bioregional community."

One of the tragedies of NAFTA neoliberalism and now of our nation's ill-advised and poorly construed Homeland Security laws is the undermining of more than a hundred years of environmental and natural resource management law and policy. My colleagues, Kamala Platt and Nat Stone, have issued a call for research on the impact of the design and construction of The Wall on our nation's environmental and resource protection laws. Thirty-seven (37) different laws are waived in the construction of The Wall. Volunteers are needed to research the history and purpose of each law and the implications of the waiver. Please respond to this urgent call for research and communicate your results to our good colleagues.

Call for Research on Federal Laws Circumvented by the US-Mexico Border Wall Project

With barrier construction underway along the Rio Grande, help is needed to complete a set of summaries of the federal acts DHS has waived under Section 102 of the REAL ID Act.

The five DHS waivers to date have made the status of law in the borderlands, from San Diego to Brownsville, unclear.

What legal protections have been lost? What protections remain?

The legal vacuum of communication created by the waivers between barrier supporters and opponents can be filled, and discussion sparked, with basic knowledge of the waived laws.

Volunteers are needed to research and distill each law's history and purpose, and to explore the significance of its waiver. One-page summaries will be posted on a site dedicated to understanding the importance of Section 102 waivers.

Please reply for details, or to volunteer to write on any of the acts below.

Congressional Acts waived by the Department of Homeland Security as of April 1, 2008:

1. National Environmental Policy Act
2. Endangered Species Act
3. Federal Water Pollution Control Act ("Clean Water Act")
4. National Historic Preservation Act
5. Migratory Bird Treaty Act
6. Clean Air Act
7. Archeological Resources Protection Act
8. Safe Drinking Water Act
9. Noise Control Act
10. Solid Waste Disposal Act
11. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
12. Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act
13. Antiquities Act
14. Historic Sites, Buildings, and Antiquities Act
15. Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
16. Farmland Protection Policy Act
17. Coastal Zone Management Act
18. Wilderness Act
19. Federal Land Policy and Management Act
20. National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act
21. Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956
22. Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act
23. Administrative Procedure Act
24. Otay Mountain Wilderness Act of 1999
25. Sections 102(29) and 103 of Title I of the California Desert Protection Act
26. National Park Service Organic Act
27. National Park Service General Authorities Act
28. Sections 401(7), 403, and 404 of the National Park and Recreation Act of 1978
29. Sections 301(a)-(f) of the Arizona Desert Wilderness Act
30. Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899
31. Eagle Protection Act
32. Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
33. American Indian Religious Freedom Act
34. Religious Freedom Restoration Act
35. National Forest Management Act of 1976
36. Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Act of 1960
37. Federal Grant and Cooperative Agreement Act of 1977

Contact Kamala Platt at: kamalap@earthlink.net