The Price of Trump’s Wall for Arizonans
Remember Donald Trump’s campaign promises to build a “big, beautiful” concrete wall along our southern border, stretching from California, to Arizona, to New Mexico, to Texas? Though the prospect seemed laughable at the time, it looks like the process is truly set in motion. President Trump has requested 1.6 billion dollars to cover 100 miles of US land. However, what Trump and his allies fail to consider in their never-ending quest for political clout are the unforeseen negative consequences on the wall for local inhabitants across the border.
The Environmental Case
The wall carries many negative environmental impacts on local ecosystems. For example, Vox News writes that the border region is ecologically rich because a lot of it has been federally protected, and these areas harbor an incredible array of wildlife and plants. Border fences generally have been terrible for wildlife and plants, as they disrupt their migratory patterns and cut off their access to resources. The Sierra Club highlights how a border wall would disrupt the balance of fragile ecosystems across the Sonoran Desert and further endanger threatened species, such as the rare jaguar, Sonoran pronghorn, and ocelot. Dan Millis writes how many animals are stopped in their tracks while attempting to stick to their usually migration patterns, which fragments their available habitat, separating them from territory, food and water, and potential mates.
NBC News highlights how the Madrean Sky Island Archipelago, which is along the border in New Mexico and Arizona, is especially at risk of environmental devastation. The loss of these flora and fauna could potentially trigger even more harms for other species, with impacts reaching humans as well, with loss of agricultural and land-based resources. This is only one reason why Democrats should push back against the wall and Republicans should reconsider their support of it. The construction and maintenance of the wall would have other massive effects that ripple over into the future.
The Economic Case
Building the wall along our Southern border would also ironically have a negative economic impact on local businesses. According to an article from The Nation, it would hurt family farms constructed along the border by splitting them in two or disrupting portions of their land with construction, thus undermining economies that are crucial to border states’ economic success. A Stanford publication continues that the wall also hurts local American workers, by lowering trade incentives between the US and Mexico. This, in conjunction with the fact that the wall won’t have an effect on undocumented workers coming in to the country, shows how disastrous the wall truly would be for our country.
The Societal Case
Finally, Trump’s wall would have a distinct societal impact that cannot be overlooked. It would tear the Tohono O’odham people, who live in Southern Arizona and El Bajio in Northern Mexico, apart and threaten their ancestral lands. USA Today writes how “the tribal council is worried about pushing the U.S. government too far, so far that they will lose federal funds,” so they haven’t rebutted against this threat to them. Not only does the wall affect indigenous peoples and families that live across the border, but it also harms other communities in need. The Brookings Institute writes how a border wall clearly deters migrants from seeking asylum from unlivable conditions in their home countries. Thus, the wall’s construction will also harm marginalized communities across the region.
So what’s the solution? Grassroots politics and organizing will still have a role in stopping the construction of the wall. Verlon Jose, the tribal vice chairman who has become the face of the Tohono O’odham in their fight against the wall, has said in an interview with USA Today that tribes are ready to draw indigenous people from across the world for a fight that would eclipse Standing Rock. Additionally, more individual, legal groups have begun litigation to stop the wall. The fight is not over. It has merely only begun.
