Mounting Border Trash Proves Alien Invasion Alive and Well

Despite numerous reports from open borders advocacy groups that illegal immigration has come to a screeching halt, tangible physical evidence on the border refutes that claim.

In a recent story, Reuters wrote of “scores of plastic water bottles” as well as backpacks, blankets, food containers and shoes strewn about main alien crossing routes. See the photo that accompanies the story. [Migrant Trash Piles up at Remote U.S. Mexico Border Areas, by Tim Gaynor, Reuters, January 29, 2012]

More photos here.

David Burkett, a lawyer who volunteers his time, said about the four 50-pound bags of trash he had filled:

“I’ve found about a trillion water bottles.”

Since 2008, clean up efforts throughout Arizona have netted hundreds of tons of trash out of 160 acres of remote Cocopah tribal lands in the state’s western outskirts. Large portions of Arizona’s pristine ecosystems have been permanently damaged.

The affected area is close to the location where Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot dead by drug traffickers in December 2010 which puts the volunteers at risk of physical harm or possible death.

Under the direction of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Tohono O'odham Nation has completed a project to clean up waste left by illegal immigrants and identified recycling markets where they can dispose of the trash they collect.

According to the EPA, up to 1,500 migrants cross the Tohono O'odham Nation each day and discard an average of eight pounds of waste per person. The project, funded by EPA's Border 2012 Program and the Bureau of Land Management, cleaned up debris from 84 sites which included 150 bicycles and 190 vehicles abandoned by drug smugglers and human traffickers.

For Arizona residents, trash left behind by aliens crossing is a problem of long standing. In 2001, the day before 9/11, I visited Nogales and saw evidence of litter left behind by aliens who tossed it onto Arizona ranchers’ property. In 2006, the Arizona Bureau of Land Management issued a report that detailed the extent of the damage done by aliens and the cost to clean up. Read it here and see the accompanying images that show how little border protection the United States offers to hamper illegal immigration.