Shelton - your anti-Americanism flows from your words in a very obvious fashion, your words drip with your disdain for your own country and your own people. It's sickening.
If everything is so awful here, why do you stay? And more importantly, if it is so awful here, why are so many others trying to get here?
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Other opponents are hoping to drum up opposition in Congress. The Sierra Club and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), an opponent of the border fence, will jointly send a letter to House and Senate members Friday denouncing Chertoff's move. "We think [Congress] can … make sure the secretary makes a good-faith effort to abide by the laws," says Brent A. Wilkes, LULAC's national executive director. "They are the ones who gave him the authority, and they can take it away whenever they want." Other groups plan to fan public anger as a way of convincing legislators to take notice. "There's a groundswell already happening," says Mike Daulton, director of conservation policy at the National Audubon Society. "We are hoping that this is such an extreme decision that there will be a public outcry against an agency that thinks it's above the law."
The decision has also angered some local groups opposed to the wall. In Texas, Steve Ahlenius, president and CEO of the McAllen Chamber of Commerce, complained that Chertoff's moves will allow 22 miles of wall-and-berm construction that "is going to destroy habitat and lose it forever." Jim Peugh, a local Audubon volunteer in San Diego, complained, "If they have to design a fence, you'd think they'd be committed to designing it right."
Some on Capitol Hill want to repeal the law that enabled Chertoff's broad decision. Arizona Rep. hopes to gain more congressional support for a bill he introduced last year that would, among other provisions, cut language that grants the homeland secretary the broad power. The Borderlands Conservation and Security Act would also force consultation with local land managers before construction could begin. In an interview Grijalva, chair of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands of the House Resources Committee, says he will expand the focus of his first hearing on the bill, later this month in Texas, to include Chertoff's decision.
Still, opponents aren't bragging about their chances. Environmental groups failed in legal bids to stop two previous waivers that Chertoff granted, in Texas and Arizona. Environmentalists and opponents of the wall seem keenly aware that the politics of immigration and border security, especially after 9/11, trump environmental protection. Fewer than 25 members have stepped in to cosponsor Grijalva's bill since last summer. And the congressman knows that an election year may not be the best time to rally opposition to Chertoff—particularly in districts where illegal immigration is unpopular. "Honestly, I don't know if my colleagues have the political guts to challenge [the administration] on this issue," he says, criticizing fellow Democrats as well as Republicans. The question may hang fire until next year, when a new homeland security secretary takes over. By then many miles of the fence may be built. And it looks as though the next president will be one of three senators who voted to approve the border fence.
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