Tucson, AZ-- Today, the Acting Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) William Pendley stated that Trump’s border wall is “addressing the environmental crisis impacting our nation’s most vulnerable lands.” Yet, the President’s wall has already decimated over 600 acres of public lands-- bulldozing native plants, cutting off endangered wildlife migration corridors and draining precious water resources throughout the Southwest.

New photography and video from borderlands residents reveals the environmental damage of new border wall construction in Arizona-- cacti being torn apart and destruction of archaeological sites in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Pumping ground water to mix concrete for border wall construction threatens to dry up fragile desert wetlands at Quitobaquito Springs and the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona. At the same time in Texas, border wall construction is beginning adjacent to the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge just south of the 3,311-acre Las Palomas refuge tract, home to white-winged doves and many other native wildlife species.

In response, Dan Millis, Manager of the Sierra Club’s Borderlands campaign released the following statement:

“If a picture says a thousand words, then there are entire books that debunk Pendley’s profoundly false claims about border walls. Ask anyone who lives in the Southwest: the border wall is and always will be an environmental disaster. And science proves it.

Our local waters and communities face the threat of irreversible damage from these walls. We will continue fighting this wall and every one of the Trump administration’s dangerous lies and irresponsible policies that put borderlands and border communities in harm’s way.”