From our email mailbag:
A reader sent us an email containing the photos from Doug Ross’ 2007 post “The pristine Arizona Desert”. A very nice repurposing of the post I think.
Hey everyone out there!
We, in Arizona, know you're boycotting us -- but you really should come out here and see our Beautiful Sonoran Desert !
It's just gorgeous right now! We know you'd love it and maybe you can share what you saw with the rest of the country so they can love it too!
This is on an 'illegal super - highway' from Mexico to the USA ( Tucson ) used by human smugglers.
This area is located in a wash, approximately 1.5 miles long, just south of Tucson , Arizona . If a flood came, all this would be washed to the river and then onto the sea!
It is estimated over 5,000 discarded backpacks are in this wash. Countless water containers, food wrappers, clothing, feces, including thousands of soiled baby diapers. And as you can see in this picture, fresh footprints leading right into it.
As we kept walking down the wash, we thought for sure it was going to end, but around every corner was more and more trash!
And of course the trail leading out of the wash in our city, heads directly NORTH to Tucson , then leads to your town tomorrow.
They've already come through here. Isn't Arizona just beautiful, America ?
Why would you boycott us???
Our desert has basically been turned into a landfill.
The trash left behind by people illegally crossing our border is another Environmental Disaster to hit the USA .
If these actions had been done in one of our Northwest Forests or Seashore National Parks areas, there would be an uprising of the American people.....but this is the Arizona-Mexican border.
You won't see these pictures on CNN, ABC, NBC or the Arizona Republic Repugnant newspaper. Nor will they mention the disease that comes from the uncovered human waste left in our desert.
However, with respect to CNN, ABC & NBC, they do offer us "Special Reports" on cheating celebrity spouses....
To save you the trouble, I verified this email story with Snopes. They confirm that these pictures were waste taken in the Sonoran dessert in 2007 and show the trail of trash left behind by people entering our country illegally across the Mexican border. The entry was updated in May of 2010. In addition, Snopes also provides a link to the National Park Service which includes another picture,
Monumental Damage:
these routes are usually lined with empty water jugs and other discarded items. Immigrants frequently rest or camp in the most desirable places, under trees. The very same places where cactus seedlings germinate. Immigrants collect wood and build small cooking fires. These fires also cook shallow cactus roots. Trash heaps at these sites are not only unsightly, but are unsanitary and attract a variety of scavenger wildlife. Nearby water sources are often so fouled by pollution that wildlife can no longer use them. Some overnight rest stops are so heavily used that the damage is irreparable. During the rainy seasons, vehicle routes become avenues for floodwaters, further increasing the resource damage.
… as well as a warning to Americans visiting the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in the Sonoran dessert:
Potential Danger:
As a result of illegal immigrants crossing out borders, other unlawful acts do occur within the monument. Some of the illegals are armed, dangerous, and determined to complete the trip at any cost. Most often these few are smugglers and drug runners. They may drive a stolen vehicle or they may hire human "mules" to carry their contraband in homemade backpacks. Other illegals may be opportunistic, not intending harm, but the struggle is long and the temptations are numerous. Though most criminals operate after dark and in remote areas of the park, they have been apprehended in areas frequented by visitors.
If you think Arizona’s new law is simply racist legislation, I would ask if you would welcome visitors like this into your neighborhood? Because, frankly, you are - whether you know it or not.
So far all the Federal Government is willing to do about this atrocity is warn tourists they may be robbed, raped and/or killed by illegal aliens. Our own President stands in solidarity with the Mexican President, calling the Arizona law (which is a direct reflection of currently unenforced federal law) “discriminatory.” He called it a "a misdirected expression of frustration." Perhaps, but we don’t have any way to re-direct it until November.
I don’t know about you, but I’m growing pretty tired of being accused of acting stupidly by a guy who - in my opinion – has defined the term.
If you still think Arizona needs to be boycotted, feel free. But after a couple more years of this, there will be no need. You won’t be able to pay people to visit, let alone live there.
