Texas refuge could be battleground over wall

ALAMO, Texas – When the area around the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge flooded during Hurricane Alex in 2010, the ocelots, Texas indigo snakes and endangered Texas tortoises simply trotted, slithered or crawled over a nearby levee to higher ground.

If President Trump’s proposed border wall is erected here, that sanctuary would vanish. “This is one of the most diverse habitats in the entire country,” said biologist Tiffany Kersten, a border environmentalist and Friends of the Wildlife Corridor board member. “If a wall was put up … everything that doesn’t fly would be affected.”

The Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge — a 2,088-acre tangle of trees, animals, birds and butterflies straddling the U.S.-Mexican border in South Texas — could become the site of one of the fiercest standoffs between federal engineers and locals and environmentalists opposing a border wall.

Customs and Border Patrol officials said the refuge would be one of the first sites for Trump’s proposed wall, which would rise atop the levee that runs through the property.

Congress has yet to appropriate funding for a wall. Trump said he would not extend protection to immigrants brought illegally to this country as children, known as “DREAMers,” unless Congress earmarks $25 billion for the wall. Senate Democrats have resisted any wall funding as part of a deal.

The preserve would be a prime site for the wall because it’s federal land and wouldn’t have to go through the lengthy and costly eminent domain hearings that private property would, Kersten said. “It’s low-hanging fruit,” she said.

Last week, more than 700 protesters gathered in a field next to the refuge to denounce the prospect of a wall there. Other sensitive environmental areas along the border, such as the Santa Teresa area in New Mexico, are likely to experience clashes between pro- and antiwall groups, said Brian Segee, senior attorney with the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s a 2,000mile-long area with ... thousands of sensitive environmental areas and endangered species,” Segee said. “The stakes can scarcely be higher.”

Santa Ana is unique because it’s the intersection of four ecosystems: coastal influence from the east, desert to the west, temperate climate from the north and tropical to the south, said Kersten, who worked at the refuge as a biologist.

The Border Patrol said in a statement that the refuge lacks patrol roads and other elements to effectively monitor illegal traffic in the area. The agency said it utilizes sustainable environmental practices in all of its operations.

The Trump administration is attempting to circumvent federal environmental protection laws by filing waivers that allow the government to erect border barriers in ecologically sensitive areas. George W. Bush’s administration filed five such waivers while constructing a border fence, according to federal filings. The Trump administration has filed three, including one that would allow it to build a wall in the Santa Teresa area of south central New Mexico.