Word: dirosa
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...DiRosa says "50 to 60% of my budget" is focused on border issues, not wilderness protection. He jokes that he has love-hate relationship with the Border Patrol - where illegals go, the Border Patrol follows, further impacting the wilderness. "It's a Catch-22 - we are joined at the hip," he said. "But if the Border Patrol was not out there it would be a war zone...
...ranger at neighboring Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was killed by drug smugglers. Vehicle barriers, which allow animals to pass back and forth, are now in place along parts of the Arizona border. More are planned and will soon be protecting Cabeza Prieta. But drug smugglers have adapted and DiRosa said there has been an increase in backpacking gangs. On the Mexican side, conservationists face the same challenges - one large Mexican refuge has several clandestine airstrips operated by the cartels, which operate with impunity...
...Still DiRosa insists, "You can't put a bar on this border. Anything you put is nothing more than a lock that has to be watched. We need detection technology, patrols." Retaining open borders for wildlife may mean using several approaches, including vehicle and pedestrian barriers in some areas, technology, drones, radar and more human patrols in others, he said...
...immigration issue can't be solved on the border," DiRosa said. "It has to be solved in Mexico City and Washington." He is encouraged by language in the current immigration bill that calls for DHS to comply with environmental standards and coordinate with various federal land management agencies to "minimize the adverse impact on natural and cultural resources from border protection activities...
...This is the best I've seen come out of Washington," DiRosa said in an e-mail to TIME after reading the bill. "Sounds good in theory, but then there is the real world in which we land managers and Border Patrol must work...