Habitat destruction

The Homeland Security czar is acting more like an old-fashioned czar every day.

Thanks to an indefensible Supreme Court decision not even to hear an appeal on the power of the Homeland Security secretary, we now have a Cabinet officer with extraordinary authority to overturn laws.

The court’s decision, which came down June 23, means a lower court’s ruling in favor of Homeland Security will stand, affirming the consolidation of power in the office of Michael Chertoff.

In 2005, Congress wrongly entrusted Chertoff with the unilateral authority to bypass laws if he determined they stand in the way of the border fence. Last year, he waived 20 environmental and conservation laws, including the Endangered Species Act.

The case brought by the Sierra Club and the Defenders of Wildlife concerned two miles of fence being built across the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area near Naco, Ariz. The groups claimed that Congress had abdicated its own legislative responsibility and improperly delegated it to the executive branch. Showing an amazing lack of interest in this vital question, the Supreme Court didn’t even bother to consider it.

The next battleground is in Texas, where the fence as planned would shut down the 557-acre Sabal Palm Audubon Center, along with several other conservatories.

Homeland Security says it is sensitive to environmental concerns, but that’s a laughable assertion. It has been destroying the natural habitat of a rich diversity of animals that live along the border, including endangered species such as the ocelot and the jaguarondi, in its efforts to sweep aside anything that stands in the way of the fence.

In April, Chertoff waived 27 laws concerning the building of flood levees in the Rio Grande Valley. The following month a coalition of border town mayors and judges were forced to file a lawsuit to protect landowners in Texas whose property rights had allegedly been violated.

Other lawsuits against Homeland Security are still pending in El Paso County. And the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo has filed suit, concerned that the fence will “impede access to parts of the Rio Grande where members of the tribe have conducted religious ceremonies for centuries.”

The Supreme Court’s decision does not bode well for any of these cases – or for the people and the ecosystem of the border.