Illegal Alien Traffic Trashes Nature Area

(Phoenix, Arizona) Federal authorities have closed the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge which shares the border with Mexico for 5.5 miles. Security and decimation of the environment are noted as reasons that "the land will be indefinitely inaccessible to the public."

Notably, the refuge is not the first federally-protected area closed to the public. Previously, a third of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was closed for the same reasons. Anyone surprised?

From AZCentral.com:

Originally established as a haven for the meek-mannered masked bobwhite quail, the 118,000-acre [Buenos Aires] refuge has been ravaged by illegal-immigrant traffic in recent years.

More than 250,000 illegal immigrants entered the refuge in 2004 and 2005. Their footsteps and vehicles have cut more than 1,300 miles of trails through the native grassland, some of which could take more than a century to recover. The landscape is dotted with rusting, abandoned vehicles and tons of clothing and trash.

Additionally, major emphasis is on security since smugglers and traffickers are regularly shooting at and sometimes killing law enforcers. So far two large tracts of land have been closed to the public and I assume there will be more.

Given that the natural environment is being trashed by the illegals with recovery seen as a long-term project, it's curious to me that the leftist environmental crowd can support continued, if not wide open, trespassing on the land. I haven't heard one peep about protecting the national refuges from the interlopers. But the enviros will broadcast megaphonic peeps when the suggestion is made to drill oil on a few acres of frozen tundra in Alaska. Somewhat hypocritical, don't you think?

And what about the meek-mannered endangered masked bobwhite quail? Poor thing. It's been forgotten.