January 4th 2009
Sunday Scan – A New Year Edition
See Ya, Smuggler’s Gulch
I got a real kick out of seeing this picture in this morning’s LA Times. It shows the border fence on the U.S./Mexican border, apparently looking east-to-west as the fence snakes through Smuggler’s Gulch. Here’s the LAT:
Reporting from San Diego — Smuggler’s Gulch lived up to its infamous name.
For a century, the narrow canyon leading into California from Mexico provided cover for cattle thieves and opium dealers, bandits and booze runners. More recently, it has hidden thousands of illegal immigrants on their journey north, sealing its place in border lore.
Now, it’s a fading memory.
The canyon has been all but wiped off the landscape, its steep walls carved into gentle slopes, its depths filled with 35,000 truckloads of dirt as the federal government nears completion of an extensive border reinforcement project at the southwesternmost point of the United States.
Environmentalists, including California’s notorious Coastal Commission, fought the fence, citing all sorts of environmental chaos that surely would follow, saying it “will harm the Tijuana River estuary, threaten endangered species and destroy culturally sensitive Native American sites.” As the photo shows, there’s an environmental point to be made here – but it’s a limited one. The very dense cities of Tijuana and San Deigo create a much more impervious barrier to species migration than this puny wall.
In the end, the Bush admin. had to just override all this and push the fence forward. Now that Smuggler’s Gulch has been bulldozed into oblivion, I’m in accord with former Border Patrol agent Donald McDermott who told the LAT:
Good riddance. Anything that makes it easier to control the border is a good thing. Continue Reading »
