Am I Prepared To Pay With Human Lives To Save A Lizard?

Michael Chertoff speaks a little common sense to the environmental wackos.

Threats to animals and the environment from border fencing must be weighed against dangers that exist where there is no fence, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday.

“I have to say to myself, Yes, I don’t want to disturb the habitat of a lizard, but am I prepared to pay human lives to do that?” Chertoff said in a phone interview.

His comments came a day after a U.S. district court judge temporarily delayed construction of a 1.5-mile fence the Homeland Security Department is building in an Arizona natural conservation area.

The judge ruled Wednesday that the federal government rushed its environmental study, written in three weeks, and did not take a comprehensive look at how that fencing might effect other parts of the border.

Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club petitioned for the delay.

Chertoff said some 20,0000 undocumented immigrants crossed illegally last year at San Pedro Riparian Natural Conservation Area in Arizona.

Those immigrants left trash, human waste and abandoned vehicles in the area. They also introduce parasites to the area’s aquifer brought with them in water bottles filled south of the border, Chertoff said.

Also visitors to border parks face dangers from armed drugs traffickers and smugglers.

I don’t know what kind of twisted logic it takes to think that a fence will hurt the environment, but a steady stream of illegal immigrants tromping around won’t hurt the environment.

The fact that they worry more about a lizard than a human is enough to make me throw up a little bit.