US border security advocates eye remote lands

Ranchers split over US border security plan
Updated: 4:09 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012 | Posted: 3:58 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012

By ELLIOT SPAGAT

The Associated Press

NOGALES, Ariz. —

When Dan Bell drives through his 35,000-acre cattle ranch, he speaks of the hurdles that the Border Patrol faces in his rolling green hills of oak and mesquite trees — the hours it takes to drive to some places, the wilderness areas that are generally off-limits to motorized vehicles, the environmental reviews required to extend a dirt road.

John Ladd offers a different take from his 14,000-acre spread: the Border Patrol already has more than enough roads and its beefed-up presence has flooded his land and eroded the soil.

Their differences explain why ranchers are on opposite sides of the fence over a sweeping proposal to waive environmental reviews on federal lands within 100 miles of Mexico and Canada for the sake of border security. The Border Patrol would have a free hand to build roads, camera towers, helicopter pads and living quarters without any of the outside scrutiny that can modify or even derail plans to extend its footprint.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved the bill authored by Utah Republican Rob Bishop in June. But prospects in the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate are extremely slim and chances of President Barack Obama's signature even slimmer. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testified in Congress this year that the bill was unnecessary and "bad policy."

More:
http://www.ajc.com/news/ap/new-mexico/us-border-security-advocates-eye-remote-lands/nTdf3/

More waste of time which will go NO where in the senate since it is so BIZARRE. Without regulates to stop another "drug war" waste of VietNam waste is just to STUPID.

This American is not blind to the GOP being an evil wasteful demon organization.

But billions for red state boondoggles? No problemo.

I live less then a hundred miles from the Canadian border and miss being able to go north fishing or spend a week end in Quebec. No I won't get a passport. That was one of the great things about our relation with Canada one of the longest unprotected borders in the world.