Southern Arizona Project to Mitigate Environmental Damages
Resulting from Illegal Immigration
A SUMMARY OF 2003 - 2005
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
TO MITIGATE ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGES
RESULTING FROM ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
A SUMMARY OF 2003-2005 ACCOMPLISHMENTS
What are the “Kolbe” funds?
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has, since Fiscal Year (FY) 2003, administered special annual congressional appropriations known locally as the “Kolbe” funds which have been used for the Southern Arizona Project. These funds have been applied to lands mainly from the Tohono O’odham Nation lands east to the
Detailed End-of-Year reports for this program have been issued by BLM for FY2003, FY2004 and FY2005 (titles listed below). This Summary Report addresses the project accomplishments for the fiscal years 2003 through 2005.
In 2002, at the request of Congress (and as initiated by Congressman Jim Kolbe), the Department of the Interior (DOI),
FY2004 $ 790,000
FY2005 $ 986,000
FY2006 $ 971,000
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What Are the Impacts from Illegal Immigration and Smuggling?
immigrant (undocumented alien “UDA”, undocumented immigrant “UDI”, or
undocumented migrant “UDM”) discards at least eight pounds of trash on his/her journey through southern
What’s in the litter? And why is it discarded? Some items are obviously utilized on their trip; others, such as personal papers, are apparently discarded in haste when coyote (smuggler) pick-ups occur or USBP agents and law enforcement officers interrupt the immigrant journeys. Essentially, litter includes:
• Containers and Bottles: Thousands of plastic water bottles from 1-gallon size to pint size, broken glass jars, electrolyte bottles, juices, milk containers, baby
bottles, soda and beer bottles (many beer bottles shot to pieces).
• Personal Hygiene Items and Medications: Razors, combs, brushes, shampoo, toothpaste, mouthwash, soap, makeup, toothbrushes, medications, (Naproxin, Advil, Aspirin, stomach meds, electrolytes), vitamins.
• Clothing and Shoes: Pants, sox, underwear, shirts, hats, caps, gloves, coats; high heels, shower shoes, boots, tennis shoes, sandals and thongs.
• Food and food cans: food cans (tuna, beans, juices, etc), mostly from
food cans opened with a pocketknife, leaving ragged edges and torn metal lids;
tortillas, baby foods; food items in American store containers and bags.
• Jewelry: Watches, necklaces, bracelets, knives, and key chains.
• Paper: Many items originate from other countries besides
maquiladore factories; airline and bus ticket stubs; phone cards, Social Security
cards, identification cards; pay receipts from the
promissory notes, paper money; toilet paper, sanitary pads, disposable diapers.
• Fabric and plastic: Back packs by the hundreds; blankets, towels, table cloths, serapes, rags, rope, string, wire, lots of plastic bags used for carrying food, or large ones for use as raincoats; fanny packs, shoulder packs, wallets, and gloves.
• Miscellaneous: Batteries, cell phones, radios, home-made weapons
• Human Waste: the accumulation of disintegrating toilet paper and human feces
represents both health and safety concerns and is unsightly to visitors.
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Illegal roads and trails and damaged infrastructure and improvements:
Thousands of roads and trails are being illegally established. Illegal roads and trails fragment habitat, destroy vegetation, cause erosion and leave unsightly scars which, if not rehabilitated, will last for decades in areas which were pristine less than a decade ago. Legal roads become unusable due to illegal vehicle traffic and required law enforcement use. Paths made by thousands of feet cross sensitive areas such as archaeological sites, riparian zones and springs.
Gates are rammed and range improvements are damaged. Fences are cut, run over, left open or removed. Water tanks for cattle and wildlife are emptied of water or destroyed, adding to the critical shortage in severe drought conditions.
Abandoned vehicles and bicycles: Bicycles began to emerge as a significant item in 2003 and some use may stem from transporting drugs as well as humans. The Tohono O’odham Nation reports that bicycles are used at night across the reservation Hundreds of smuggling vehicles have been abandoned and tires, batteries, gas cans and seats scattered across the landscape. Abandoned and often burned vehicles are difficult and costly to remove with great care needed to avoid further damage by the removal. Even though hundreds of vehicles have been removed, hundreds need removal.
Campfires and escaped fires: The impacts of warming and cooking fires by illegal immigrants cannot be overlooked in southern
Vandalism, Graffiti and Archaeological Site Damage: New images scratched or spray painted on trees, boulders and sites sometimes mark the path and sometimes indicate time spent in passing or waiting. Historic and prehistoric sites are covered with litter, trampled or have paths cut through them.
Who is involved in the
To complete the mitigation actions, BLM has completed assistance agreements with a wide variety of groups, agencies, counties and cities, and the Tohono O’odham Nation. Each annual report from 2003 to 2005 presents detailed accomplishments for that year with descriptions of work accompanied by photographs illustrating the landscape before and after the project work. Individual BLM field offices in southern
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Agency, Unit or
Organization Funded
FY03 FY04 FY05 FY06
Approximately
5% unallocated
as yet
BLM Safford Field
Office (FO)
$ 15,000 *
$ 12,000 * $ 12,000 * $ 15,000 *
BLM
BLM
BLM
-0- $ 69,000 $ 62,000 $ 96,500 *
BLM AZ State Office
Law Enforcement
$ 70,000 $ 83,000 $ 103,000 $ 55,000
BLM AZ State Office $ 85,000 $ 7,000 $ 11,000 $ 9,000
Malpai Borderlands
Group
$ 90,000 $ 40,000 $ 0 $ 23,500
Gila Watershed
Partnership
$ 25,000 $ 20,000
International Sonoran
Desert
$ 20,000 $ - 0 -
National Park Service
(NPS)**
$ 20,000 FB $ 20,000 FB $ 25,000 FB
$ 16,000 CNM
$ 16,000 CNM
$ 30,000 OP
Fish & Wildlife Service
(FWS)***
$ 20,000 LSB $ 20,000 LSB $ 45,000 LSB
$ 14,000 BA
$ 20,000 LSB
$ 14,000 BA
$ 28,000 CP
1 project with
BLM in FY03
$ 30,000
Town of
Tohono O’odham $ 50,000 $ 19,000 $ 50,000
* Plus funding for partnerships listed below in the same column
**National Park Service (NPS) units: Ft. Bowie National Historic site (FB); Coronado National Memorial
(CNM);
***Fish & Wildlife Service units: Leslie Canyon/San Bernardino (LSB) National Wildlife Refuge (NWF);
Buenos Aires NWF (BA); Cabeza Prieta NWR (CP)
• Youth Corps of
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• Northwest Youth Corps
• Coconino Rural Environment Corps Through volunteer agreements, significant service organizations and other volunteers have provided in-kind donations or utilized materials to remove litter, create barricades, install signs, etc:
•
• Humane Borders
•
• BorderLinks
• Audubon Research Ranch
•
•
• Southeastern
• Safford 4-H
• Girl Scout, Boy Scouts and Eagle Scout Troop
• And for the 2003 Kick-Off event:
Some of these groups made and continue to make significant dents in the migration efforts for lands managed by BLM. Two examples:
Town of
Humane Borders: in FY2005 on 12 occasions, 2 to 47 participants contributed over 720 hours picking up 155 bags of trash (estimate of 75 cubic yards) and removing these to a landfill. This group also provided substantial assistance in FY2004: on 8 occasions, 14 to 25 individuals contributed 630 hours to pick up and remove 296 bags of trash. All efforts took place at the IFNM which is 70 miles north of the
What are the Accomplishments of the Project?
+ Pounds 79,733 pounds weighed in at landfill sites
+ Pounds Hundreds of other pounds that were not formally weighed
+ cubic yards 30 cubic yards of tires
+ Roll-offs 15 trash rolls offs (over 38 tons)
Conservatively, more than 250,000 pounds of trash have been removed in 3 years, most of it picked up by hands (protected with gloves) and a great deal of that done by young crewmembers.
• Abandoned car removals: 300 removed from the BLM Phoenix Field Office
(Sonoran Desert National Monument-SDNM) and another 341 removed from all southern Arizona BLM lands with law enforcement officer involvement;
• Bicycle removals: 1725 mostly from Tohono O’odham Nation (1420 being
recycled through BICKAS and other routes; 325 from the SDNM being put to
good use through Goodwill);
• Roads and Trail rehabilitated, removed or restored: 50 individuals routes plus 50 miles; 51 miles of road maintained or brought back to safe use;
• Sensitive area protection: two riparian areas protected by barricades but one
repeatedly rebuilt in the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area (LCNCA) after smugglers repeatedly broke through; new fencing along the Waterman Area of Critical Environmental Concern (in the IFNM) for 2 miles; and innumerable fence repairs by crews;
• Barriers and barricades: 1750 feet of guardrail along road and a short pipe rail
vehicle barricade were installed;
• Native areas restored to native vegetation: 20 acres;
• Watershed restored: The Malpais Borderlands Group in southeastern
placed 1950 structures, ranging from plugs to dams, to create soil stability and
establish native grasses. Additionally, the SCA and Youth Corps crews as well as other volunteers were provided protective gear for the job; the SCA received specific training including advanced first aid; communication was upgrade for field crews; and tools and supplies were provided.
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Special Border Security Details 2003-2005
Thousands of immigrants and smugglers of controlled substances and UDIs cross BLM and adjacent lands each day. In 2005, the BLM San Pedro National Conservation Area was also the site of the Minuteman Project.
For the last three years (and continuing into FY2006), BLM Arizona law enforcement has been provided with some of the “Kolbe” funding to provide security for crews completing cleanup and rehabilitation of lands and to provide emergency care to persons found in distress. Other indirect goals met were to increase the law enforcement presence in order to serve as a deterrent for undocumented immigrant and drug smuggling, prevent additional resource damage and trash dumping, and provide increased visitor and employee safety on public lands near the border.
Funding amount: FY03 $70,000 FY04 $83,000 FY05 $103,000
Details:
rangers
7/6/03 – 9/20/03
3 additional rangers
assigned; worked 600
hours of overtime plus
base
4/4/04 – 5/29/04
2 additional rangers
Rangers from El Central
CA assisted Yuma Field
Office; other AZ field
offices assisted the
Districts
Base time contributed
by rangers outside of
southern
1,200 hours 1280 hours -
Overtime by local (BLM
AZ) rangers
800 hours 800 hours 2, 247 hours
BLM law enforcement officers include both special agents and locally-assigned rangers. Details are sanctioned assignments of officers outside their home unit.
Listed below are law enforcement statistics from special details associated with this project of mitigation for immigrant impacts (taken from Significant Activity Reports):
Statistics FY03 FY04 FY05
Stolen Vehicles
Removed
6 34 68
Vehicles Impounded
tied to UDI Smuggling
53 167 UDI and Narcotic
smuggling
121
Undocumented
Immigrants Detained for
USBP
192 1,284 597
Pounds of Marijuana
Seized
6,254 2,820 924
Assaults on Ranger (by
vehicle)
1 - 2
Weapons Seized 3 - 8
Backup to Assault of
Border Patrol Officer
1 - 4
First Aid Provided to
Injured Persons
2 - 41
Assist Recovery of UDI
Exposure Fatalities
11 - 3
Prosecutions for Title 21 - 14 -
8
offences
Emergency medical
assistance incidents
- 137 -
Border security details - - 41
Search and Rescue - - 8
Are these activities effective for mitigating impacts?
“I would hate to think about what this Monument would look like without this funding. It wouldn’t look much like a National Monument. We have no other capacity to remove trash, let alone the hundreds of vehicles and bicycles.” Gene Dahlem, Manager (retired),
areas no longer attracted traffic and therefore were rehabilitated.
In summary, the special annual appropriations were spent directly by BLM and partners for on-the-ground activities that mitigate the impacts of illegal smuggling. Public lands are cleaner as a result of this effort. It is also true, however, that some areas have yet to receive any attention due to the funding levels or to remoteness and steepness and the crews on the ground are just barely
keeping ahead of the litter and constant damages to infrastructure.
“If we didn’t have this funding to gather resources to use YCOSA and SCAs to do the work, we would be buried in trash. This has been absolutely beneficial and remains extremely important.” Bill Childress, Manager, San Pedro Riparian Natural Conservation Area, February 2006
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List: End-of-Year Reports that have been made available by BLM:
Southeast Arizona 2003 Project to Mitigate Environmental Degradation Caused by Illegal Immigrants: End-of-Year Report Southern Arizona Project to
THE
To Mitigate Environmental Damages Resulting from Illegal Immigration and Smuggling
March 2006
Illegal Immigrants
Impacts from Illegal Immigration and Smuggling Activities:
IFNM: Trash on the way to the landfill Tohono O’odham: typical trash load
Other Damage:
Trash in sensitive habitat Graffiti
Campfire damaged cactus Illegal Tracks
Illegal roads and abandoned vehicle Repaired legal roadway
Illegal road before closure After closure
Abandoned vehicle Towing vehicle from National Monument
Abandoned Bicycles
.
Protection for sensitive riparian area