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After his attempts to sell off national public lands failed earlier this year, U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah is trying a new approach—leveraging concerns over illegal immigration to disintegrate national public lands. As journalist Wes Siler writes in his newsletter, Lee continues to look for any excuse to push the federal government to get rid of national public lands.
Lee's latest effort, the Border Lands Conservation Act, would give the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Customs and Border Protection authority over congressionally-designated wilderness areas and would allow activities such as road construction, infrastructure installation, and logging operations in wilderness areas within 100 miles of the border with either Mexico or Canada. If passed, this would transfer authority to DHS of more than 3 million acres of wilderness in the Lower 48, and more than 6 million acres of wilderness in Alaska.
The bill could also open the door to DHS takeover of even more wilderness acres. "While some of the provisions of Senator Lee’s bill appear to limit its reach to border areas, the bill’s provisions that amend the 1964 Wilderness Act apply to every Wilderness in the nation,” said Wilderness Watch Executive Director George Nickas. "DHS is spread across the entire U.S., and it’s not hard to imagine a Homeland Security Secretary concocting a border security reason to send bulldozers or aircraft or install remote video surveillance systems in any Wilderness in the National Wilderness Preservation System if Lee’s bill becomes law."
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Leaving the parks open to be trashed or damaged, and then requiring employees to ‘fix’ it all when they go back to work is unacceptable and unfair.”
