Trump Administration’s Disrespectful Border Wall Construction
By: Society Of The World
Tags: Trump Administration, Washington Post, Trump, Border Wall, Humanity

Border fence construction continues up a mountain in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona. Photo: Carolyn Van Houten

During the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump mentioned building a wall to provide better border security for the United States. This idea was something that many felt was unlikely to happen due to the amount of resources and the need to get approval for construction. However, as the country gets closer to the 2020 elections, Trump has begun building his wall.

Construction crews have already began paving the way for the wall by blowing up land in Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The only issue is that the land that they are destroying is home to dozens of Native American burial sites, including the Tohono O’odham Nation’s, plants and animals that are under the protection of the United Nations due to their rarity.

The U.S. Representative for Arizona’s 3rd congressional district, Raul Grijalva, was informed of the destruction by the Tohono O’odham tribe and reached out to Chad Wolf, the head of Homeland District Security, with the concerns. Grijalva urged for the government to have a consultation with the Tohono O’odham tribe prior to construction. However, according to Grijalva “there has been no consultation with the nation.”

The Native American tribes not only worry about their burial sites being destroyed, but sites of plants and ancestral lands as well. The O’odham tribe views the 200-year-old cactuses as the embodiment of their ancestors, but the construction is burning them to the ground. The plant life along the path are some that the tribe uses for their rituals as well.

The Native American tribe’s effected by the construction are not the only ones concerned. Environmentalists along with members of the government have concerns for the wildlife in the area and other sites. According to the Washington Post, an international National Park Service reported that nearly 22 archeological sites risk destruction due to the building of Trump’s wall.

The Trump administration is able to perform such disrespectful acts under a law made in 2005 that bypasses environmental rules as well as other laws. In fact, this is the law that made it so the construction could occur without consulting the Native American tribes.

It has been reported that this law has only been used 21 times since it was first created in 2001. The sad fact is that 16 out of the 21 times it has been used, was within the past two years. This means that Trump has been exploiting this law to commit acts such as this one throughout his presidency.

With the issue of climate change arising, environmental issues and rules should be held at a higher position. By having a law that allows the government to commit acts without consultation or abiding the rules, the government is given the power to disrespect and ignore concerns of the nation. Therefore, this law should be evaluated and perhaps even removed.

Trump’s administration should be required to have a consultation with the Native American tribes whose burial and sacred sites they are destroying. Allowing Trump’s administration to destroy these lands without consultation is uncalled for. These lands should be seen as sacred to not only the Native American tribes, but to the nation as well. They are home to indigenous people and should be treated with respect. By destroying the burial sites, Trump is essentially defiling a graveyard.

Overall, Trump’s administration should be ashamed of themselves for doing this. The idea that the leader of this country, who is supposed to have the people’s best interest in mind, would stoop this low to get “his way” is absolutely asinine. Hopefully, in the near future there will be a way to prevent this from happening further.