By: Nick Ellis

During Donald’s Trumps presidency, his administration built approximately 450 miles of its desired 741-mile wall along the U.S. Mexico border.[i] In this effort, the Trump Administration spent approximately $15 billion replacing existing barriers, extending portions of the wall, and adding a second layer for a 30-foot steel fence.[ii] However, the wall construction has come to an abrupt halt due to President Biden’s issuance of an executive order to stop construction of the border wall temporarily, with its future remaining unclear.[iii] The decision of what to do with the wall moving forward is complicated for various reasons.[iv] Sections of the wall are already partially built and billions of federal dollars are already spent or appropriated for the wall in private construction contracts.[v] There is also the controversial debate regarding immigration and the wall’s impact as a deterrent. However, another less known factor to consider is the wall impact on the environment.

The construction of the wall has already had a significant negative impact on the environment.[vi] Future decisions of the new president will either exacerbate damage done to the environment or help restore that region's natural habitat.[vii] Thus, the Biden Administration should consider the environmental impact before deciding how to proceed with the wall.

As it stands, parts of the wall cut through some of North America's most biodiverse landscapes.[viii] Construction has already affected national parks and wildlife areas such as the Otay Mountain Wilderness Area in California, the Sonoran Desert and the Sky Islands in Arizona, New Mexico's Chihuahuan Desert, and the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas, not to mention many citizens’ private land.[ix] Simply put, the wall's construction in those areas has negatively impacted the region's wildlife and water use. Once wide-open landscapes where wildlife and water could move freely have are now severed by the colossal steel barrier.[x]

While the wall may look like just a thin line on a map or drone image, each segment requires a significant construction project whose ecological consequences extend far beyond its physical footprint.[xi] Researchers and sustainability non-profits believe that the construction has stripped away significant portions of the area's vegetation.[xii] This has blocked migration corridors for species in the area and fragmented habitats.[xiii] One conservation advocate stated, "Nothing larger than a cottontail rabbit could pass through there, so the common wildlife you see along the border, such as javelina, deer, mountain lion, bobcat, bighorn sheep, those are going to be completely impeded by this border wall."[xiv]

In addition, to the displacement of the wildlife, there has been a significant impact on the construction areas' water use.[xv] Contractors have had to use water from deep belowground for wetting roads to keep the dust down or to make cement.[xvi] This has taken up millions of gallons of water from ponds, wetlands, and rivers, which affect hundreds of different species.[xvii] The San Pedro River is just one example of the impacted areas.[xviii] One of the Southwest's last free-flowing rivers in southern Arizona, the river now has a portion of the border wall located directly across the riverbed.[xix] As a result of the wall's construction, that river's normal ecological functioning has been disturbed to the extent that the river now functions as a Dam.[xx] This impacts not only the different fish species but the millions of migratory birds that use the river as a lifeline before they flyway every year.[xxi]

These issues only scratch the surface of the environmental impact of the wall. The full extent of the damage done by this project is still unknown because of the lack of data from ecological impact studies, which were waived by federal law to expedite border construction.[xxii] Nevertheless, it is clear that the environment in that region has been negatively impacted. Therefore, the Biden Administration should consider the wall's long-term environmental impact before deciding how to proceed.

[i] Elizabeth Findell & Michelle Hackman, As Biden Decides What to Do with Trump’s Border Wall, Landowners are in Limbo, Wall St. J., (Feb. 7, 2021), https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-biden-decides-what-to-do-with-trumps-border-wall-landowners-are-in-limbo-11612702800 [https://perma.cc/QHQ4-LVBK].

[ii] Editorial: It’s Biden’s Border Wall Now. Here’s How He Should Handle It, L.A. Times, (Feb. 7, 2021), https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-02-07/biden-trump-border-wall-mexico-immigration-reform [https://perma.cc/L4ZY-W7WH].

[iii] Findell, supra note i.

[iv] Id.

[v] Id.

[vi] Samuel Gilbert, 'My Neighbourhood is Being Destroyed to Pacify his Supporters': The Race to Complete Trump's Wall, The Guardian, (Jan. 16, 2021), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/16/my-neighbourhood-is-being-destroyed-to-pacify-his-supporters-the-race-to-complete-trumps-wall [https://perma.cc/GBP9-KUV9].

[vii] Ariana Brocious, Damage Wrought by Trump’s Border Wall “Will Not Ever Be Remediated or Mitigated”, MotherJones, (Feb. 8 2021), https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2021/02/damage-wrought-by-trumps-border-wall-will-not-ever-be-remediated-or-mitigated/ [https://perma.cc/6H3W-Q4GN].

[viii] April Reese, Some Ecological Damage from Trump’s Rushed Border Wall Could Be Repaired, Scientific American, (Jan. 25 2021), https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/some-ecological-damage-from-trumps-rushed-border-wall-could-be-repaired1/ [https://perma.cc/4ZAJ-88DX].

[ix] Id.

[x] Brocious, supra note vii.

[xi] Reese, supra note viii.

[xii] Id.

[xiii] Id.

[xiv] Brocious, supra note vi.

[xv] Id.

[xvi] Id.

[xvii] Id.

[xviii] Id.

[xix] Brocious, supra note vi

[xx] Id.