Immigration Watch International (2): Future of Border Wall in Doubt After Agency Declares Milkweed an Endangered Species

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Future of Border Wall in Doubt After Agency Declares Milkweed an Endangered Species

The addition of milkweed to a federally protected list of endangered species is set to hinder the construction of a wall along the southern border.

On Monday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared prostrate milkweed an endangered species. Under federal law, that means the land it grows on would be designated as “a critical habitat,” with environmental protections that make public projects considerably more cumbersome to undertake.

Environmentalists say the designation will protect the monarch butterfly, whose caterpillars feed exclusively on the plant. According to a 2015 study by the Department of the Interior, the monarch population decreased by a billion between 1990 and 2014. The agency attributed the decline in population to the eradication of natural habitats and to insecticides being sprayed on milkweed.

The move, though, has drawn the ire of Texas’s attorney general, Warren Paxton. Along with Governor Abbott, Mr. Paxton is a proponent of sealing the southern border to prevent migrants from crossing into Texas from Mexico.

President Trump famously staked his 2016 campaign on a promise to “build the wall and make Mexico pay for it.” The Trump administration constructed and fortified more than 450 miles of wall — about 50 miles of which was newly constructed.

President Biden put a moratorium on the wall’s construction his first day in office, and offered only lukewarm support for plugging existing gaps in it. Since then, Mr. Abbott has taken it upon himself to finish the work that Mr. Trump started.

The Lone Star State has so far completed about 2 miles worth of wall and has contracts for the construction of 35 more miles, according to the Texas Tribune. The state recently returned to building after a pause to negotiate with private landowners along the border.

The prostrate milkweed is found only within nine miles of the southern border — meaning much of the land on which a border wall would be built now finds itself as part of its critical habitat. Federal law prohibits any public projects that could “destroy or adversely modify” the species’ existence in the designated lot of land.

Texas Republicans have expressed concern that the designation would prevent the construction of the border wall, but the Fish and Wildlife Service has rejected the notion that it would hinder border protection.

In a letter to the agency, Mr. Paxton called the possibility of adding prostrate milkweed to the endangered species list an “absurd effort to paralyze Texas’s border control.” Mr. Paxton warned about the consequences for “putting a plant before the lives of Texans.”

The attorney general also questioned the soundness of the rule as an environmental protection measure, suggesting that unmitigated migration could prove worse for milkweed. More than 150,000 migrants were apprehended by Border Patrol agents at the southern border in January.

“The prospect of thousands of migrants and undocumented immigrants trampling the vegetation and plant life while journeying north through Zapata and Starr Counties each year is no doubt potentially harmful to the sensitive environment surrounding prostrate milkweed,” Mr. Paxton wrote then — to no avail.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, however, contends that the designation of land as critical habitat “will not preclude border wall construction or security operations.”

“We will continue to collaborate with DHS and CBP to ensure border security operations can still occur in areas designated as critical habitat for prostrate milkweed,” the agency said on Monday.

https://www.nysun.com/article/future-of-border-wall-in-doubt-after-agency-declares-milkweed-an-endangered-species

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Background

Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.

Why is "La Raza" the one Spanish term that is NEVER translated in the American mass media? Because translating it would make it a lot less respectable. It means "THE RACE" -- The mixed Hispanic "race" of Mexico. Racism is fine South of the Rio Grande only, apparently.

The "line" of this blog is that immigration should be SELECTIVE. That means that:

1). A national government should be in control of it. The U.S. and U.K. governments are not but the Australian government has shown that the government of a prosperous Western country can be. Up until its loss of office in 2007, the conservative Howard government had all but eliminated illegal immigration. The present Leftist government has however restarted the flow of illegals by repealing many of the Howard government regulations.

2). Selectivity should be based on "the content of a man's character, not on the color of his skin", as MLK said. To expand that a little: Immigrants should only be accepted if they as individuals seem likely to make a positive net contribution to the country. Many "refugees" would fail that test: Muslims and Africans particularly. Educational level should usually be a pretty fair proxy for the individual's likely value to the receiving country. There will, of course, be exceptions but it is nonetheless unlikely that a person who has not successfully completed High School will make a net positive contribution to a modern Western society.

3). Immigrants should be neither barred NOR ACCEPTED solely because they are of some particular ethnic origin. Blacks are vastly more likely to be criminal than are whites or Chinese, for instance, but some whites and some Chinese are criminal. It is the criminality that should matter, not the race.

4). The above ideas are not particularly blue-sky. They roughly describe the policies of the country where I live -- Australia. I am critical of Australian policy only insofar as the "refugee" category for admission is concerned. All governments have tended to admit as refugees many undesirables. It seems to me that more should be required of them before refugees are admitted -- for instance a higher level of education or a business background.

5). Perhaps the most amusing assertion in the immigration debate is that high-income countries like the USA and Britain NEED illegal immigrants to do low-paid menial work. "Who will pick our crops?" (etc.) is the cry. How odd it is then that Australians get all the normal services of a modern economy WITHOUT illegal immigrants! Yes: Before the pandemic, you usually COULD buy a lettuce in Australia for a dollar or thereabouts. And Australia IS a major exporter of primary products.

6). I am a libertarian conservative so I reject the "open door" policy favoured by many libertarians and many Leftists. Both those groups tend to have a love of simplistic generalizations that fail to deal with the complexity of the real world. It seems to me that if a person has the right to say whom he/she will have living with him/her in his/her own house, so a nation has the right to admit to living among them only those individuals whom they choose.

I can be reached on jonjayray@hotmail.com -- or leave a comment on any post. Abusive comments will be deleted.

Immigration Watch International (2)

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Future of Border Wall in Doubt After Agency Declares Milkweed an Endangered Species

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