The Malignant Loser's xenophobic project to build a wall on the border with Mexico -- and to have Mexico pay for it -- was not only a colossal boondoggle but it did enormous damage to the environment, cultural sites, and wildlife in its path. From Vanity Fair:
"According to a new report released by the Government Accountability Office this week, the roughly 450 miles of wall that went up during the Trump administration harmed everything from water to endangered species to Native American cultural sites. Monument Hill, for example, a memorial in Arizona used for religious ceremonies that remains important to a number of Indigenous communities, was “irreparably damaged when contractors used explosives to clear the way for expanding an existing patrol road.” Similarly, Tohono O’odham Nation officials reported to the GAO that a sacred burial site near Quitobaquito Springs was destroyed when contractors cleared a large area there. [snip]
- Construction disrupted water flows, and in turn, exacerbated flooding.
- The clearing of land for the wall “damaged native vegetation.”
- Clearing land without reseeding it “allowed invasive species to take root.”
- As a result of the construction work, some ponds in the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona “are now void of water, which makes it difficult to maintain water levels in other ponds that have threatened and endangered fish species.”
