David Ignell: Secure border walls protect the environment

By DAVID IGNELL

March 27, 2026 – Last weekend The Washington Post, aka The Pusher, published yet another article promoting its open-borders agenda.  Playing its well-soiled environment card, it highlighted fears that the construction of the Trump Administration’s Smart Wall along our southern border with Mexico would destroy pristine country and threaten endangered species.

The Post article ridiculed the 30-foot steel barriers that are a component of the Smart Wall, suggesting environmentally sensitive areas like Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument were better off with the smaller barriers used in the past.

Ha!  The Pusher’s propaganda couldn’t be further from the truth.

About 10 years ago I did a report on the Organ Pipe Monument for a geology class at an Arizona college.  The assignment required an assessment of the park’s environmental concerns.

The picture accompanying this article is of a wash in Organ Pipe.  I used the picture in my report to help illustrate the devastating impact of the #1 environmental concern in Organ Pipe – illegal immigrant activity.

The picture conclusively demonstrates the lack of reverence drug smugglers and illegal immigrants have for pristine country.  For decades, they’ve been responsible for the environmental disaster in our borderlands.

A 2003 article by author Annette McGivney recounted her hike to Sweetwater Pass in Organ Pipe.    She wrote how you can’t get lost, “just follow the trail of trash.  Pants, cans, shoes, bicycles, phone cards, socks, a Bible, underwear.  And enough plastic water jugs to choke a landfill.”  Coming across a wash along the way full of empty water jugs, McGivney quoted a hiking companion, a park employed biologist who said, “we don’t pick them up anymore, we can’t make a dent”.

Organ Pipe NM constitutes just 31 miles of the 1954-mile-long boundary between the United States and Mexico.  It is also just one of nine “protected” lands along the southern border.

The wash in the picture is just one of hundreds, if not thousands, of similar washes in our borderland region.

When the monsoon rains arrive in August, the trash in the washes gets carried away by the current for miles creating an unmitigated environmental catastrophe throughout millions of acres.

The intruders don’t leave just their trash behind.  They also deposit fecal matter that contaminates precious water sources.

Bats Magazine, the official magazine of Bat Conservation International, stated in 2009 that one million illegal immigrants pass through Organ Pipe each year.

That results in a lot of fecal matter.

In some other places around the country those fecal deposits would be a serious offense, especially in areas containing sand which lacks the bacteria necessary for waste decomposition.  For instance, rafters who leave fecal matter along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon face up to $2,500 in fines and court costs.  Repeat offenders are banned.

Speaking of Colorado, back in 2020 four Democrat legislators from that state introduced a bill to increase criminal pollution of state waters to $50,000 and imprisonment up to 3 years.  I wonder if they care about all that fecal matter lying in Organ Pipe?  Would they extend sanctuary to illegal immigrants known to have entered through Organ Pipe or do they subscribe to a dual standard?

What about Colorado U.S. Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper, both Democrats.  Organ Pipe is federal land.  Both opposed construction of the wall with Bennet calling it “ludicrous”.  Are they anti-environment?

But I digress, back to Organ Pipe and its sordid history of environmental catastrophe.

The 2010 Superintendent’s Report for Organ Pipe identified thousands of miles of unauthorized roads and trails within the Monument, where soil compaction is an environmental concern.

Organ Pipe’s park area extends anywhere from 20-30 miles north of the border.  A map in the Report showed the unauthorized routes stretching throughout the entire length and width of the Monument, with ATV’s constituting 96% of vehicle incursions.

The Report found that the 12 fires which occurred in the first 9 months of 2010 were all intentionally started by drug smugglers and migrants.

A 2009 report by U.S. Fish and Wildlife reported that illegal smuggling activities pose the top source of disturbance to the Sonoran pronghorn which is threatened with extinction.

Besides the Sonoran pronghorn, other rare and sensitive species threatened by illegal activities in Organ Pipe are the Lesser Long-nosed Bat, the Quitobaquito Pupfish, the Acuna Cactus, the Sonoyta Mud Turtle, the Sonoran Desert Tortoise, and the Cactus Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl.

Our nation’s “protected” lands are supposed to function as environmental havens which foster wildlife habitat, safeguard watersheds, and provide sanctuary for endangered species.  Without secure border walls that actually work in keeping intruders out, our protected borderlands have been turned into waste dumps and sewage pits.

Barriers preferred by environmentalists don’t work

For the previous 25 years, environmental considerations have dominated Organ Pipe’s prior and ineffective border protection measures.  In the early 2000s, vehicle barriers were constructed that allowed small wildlife and monsoon water to pass through.  However, the barriers did nothing to prevent the human traffic freeway through Organ Pipe – it only slowed it down to foot speed which led to more trash, more fecal matter, and worse contamination of water resources.

The federal government next tried single wall pedestrian barriers with grated bases for water drainage which often clogged or failed during monsoon season.  The single wall system was also vulnerable to breaches by drug and human smugglers who could easily access it via a Mexican highway which runs adjacent to the border wall for many miles, or from adjacent small towns and farms.

This is why the Smart Wall plan calls for double walls in areas easily accessible to smugglers, supplemented with cameras, lights, and other surveillance technology.  A second stout wall a short distance away will enable Border Patrol agents to apprehend those who manage to breach the first wall without having to chase them through the park and cause more damage to environmentally sensitive areas.

In places requiring a second wall, it will be built 150 to 200 feet north of the existing wall.  In other words, the environmental damage during construction claimed by the Pusher will be contained to about a hundred yards north of the border instead of the many miles that were previously trampled, trashed, and defecated upon by millions of smugglers and illegal immigrants.

Porous borders are dangerous for visitors, scientists, and park rangers

In 2002, Organ Pipe Park Ranger Kris Eggle was shot and killed by a drug smuggler wielding an AK-47.  A national park ranger fraternity labeled the monument “the most dangerous park in America”.

For the next several years the majority of Organ Pipe was closed off to the public because of the danger posed by drug smugglers.  A 2007 article by the Associated Press carried the headline “Violent Border Smugglers Scare U.S. Scientists”.

The AP article led with the ordeals of biologist Karen Krebbs who abandoned her research on endangered bats in Organ Pipe after a dozen close encounters with caravans of men with guns and backpacks full of drugs.  “I’m just not willing to risk my neck anymore”, Krebbs said.

At the beginning of 2007, new research permits granted by Organ Pipe slowed to a trickle after scientists were required to sign a statement acknowledging that officials could not guarantee their safety from drug smugglers.

In October of 2008, five scientists spent two weeks hiking through Organ Pipe assessing habitat for the endangered Lesser Long-nosed Bat under a contract with the Park Service.  They had to be accompanied by armed Park Rangers toting AR-15 rifles.

The scientists’ report on bats was titled “Armed Rangers and Harsh Lands”.  It stated, “Armed guards are a thankfully rare of bat research in most places, but they reflect the special challenges of working along this isolated stretch of U.S. – Mexico borderlands.”

Their report also noted the environmental scars that illegal immigrants leave behind.  “Empty water jugs, worn-out clothing and assorted trash are discarded along their footpaths, and the few available water holes and other habitats, including some mines, are disturbed.”

The Best Solution

There is no perfect solution for securing our southern border when all issues are considered.  However, the increased security outlined in the Smart Wall plan will be much better at stopping illegal intrusions into our country than has previously occurred.  As a result, the Smart Wall will greatly benefit the environment.

Before Organ Pipe became a freeway for illegal activity, McGivney described the Monument as “from a spiritual standpoint, it’s an all-you-can-eat-buffet, a place to be alone with your questions and dreams.”  Her article quoted another desert enthusiast who reminisced about how Organ Pipe and neighboring Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge used to be “an empty quadrant – a reservoir of silence” and said he had “spent the best days of his life hiking the Sonoran Desert”.

I’ve hiked or ridden my mountain bike through hundreds of miles in the Sonoran Desert and can attest to what these other outdoor enthusiasts have said.  It’s a special place — so vast yet so quiet and peaceful, you can almost hear your thoughts reverberate between the mountain ranges.

Once the Smart Wall is in place, maybe adventurous Americans can once again experience all the unique beauty that Organ Pipe and our southern borderlands have to offer.

David Ignell was born and raised in Juneau where he currently resides.  He formerly practiced law in California state and federal courts and was a volunteer analyst for the California Innocence Project. He is currently a forensic journalist and recently wrote a book on the Alaska Grand Jury.