Commentary: The borderland region surrounding the US-Mexico border, an area of rich natural and cultural diversity, is in desperate need of federal investment given widespread environmental and social damage caused by the single-minded focus on wall construction, say Bruce Babbitt and Sally Jewell, both former Secretaries of the Interior. The two have forwarded recommendations from community leaders and conservation groups in the border states urging President Biden to reopen strategic sections of the wall to allow for wildlife migration and repair lands and waters damaged during the wall’s construction. They propose a job corps to train and employ residents of impoverished border communities to restore the environment and rebuild a sustainable economy. Their letter, signed by 26 regional conservation leaders who are working cooperatively on both sides of the border, advocates for a binational, community-based effort to repair damage to land, water, and wildlife. They propose measures to address the recent destruction, which has included bulldozing nature reserves, blasting indigenous sacred sites and burial grounds, over -pumping aquifers and natural wetlands, and blocking passage of both wildlife migrations and traditional pilgrimage routes that have united cross-border communities for millennia.
Babbitt, who served as Arizona’s 16 th governor before his 8 years as President Clinton’s Interior Secretary, has long been a leader on water policy and public lands. He and Jewell, whose work in the Obama administration strengthened relationships with indigenous people and emphasized youth engagement in conservation, say that local efforts have “proven that damage can be reversed,” and swift action “can mitigate the worst impacts of the border wall.” Similarly, the cultural and social harm can be set right, believes Verlon Jose, Governor of the Traditional O’odham Leaders. “For over 160 years, my people and their traditional homelands have been separated by the border,” he said when asked about the policy recommendations, “and it’s time to heal the worst of these recent wounds, so that we can build a secure and prosperous future.”
Conservation leaders agree and have united behind a shared restoration agenda. “This isn’t political,” said Valer Clark, whose Cuenca Los Ojos organizations have worked for 35 years to restore watersheds on both sides of the border, “It’s about water and soil, and the native grasses and wildlife, and everything that makes this ecosystem work. And that includes us, the people who live here. It’s encouraging that Bruce Babbitt and Sally Jewell feel the same way. We hope that Secretary-designate Haaland will visit the border soon and see what needs to be done—we are ready get to work and help her address the issues.”
Clark’s team and other regional organizations have decades of experience restoring degraded landscapes, in partnership with local communities in the borderlands. Working together, with support and cooperation from the federal government, they are ready to “lay the foundation for a restoration economy that empowers people to rebuild a natural resource base that can sustain rural communities and stabilize conditions at the border,” write Babbitt and Jewell.
On January 20, Biden suspended construction of the border wall, pending the outcome of a 60-day review of immigration and border security polices enacted by his predecessor. The letter from Babbitt and Jewell elevates recommendations from regional experts and community leaders who hope the Biden Administration will address the need for collaborative solutions and provide new support for local programs to heal the damage and alleviate the suffering caused by recent US border policy.