Border Fencing Endangers Eco-System, Garbage Does Not

"An Eco-System Runs Through It" trumpets the June 19 front page headline in the San Antonio Express-News. The Anastasia Ustinova story manages to combine two liberal positions together in the guise of protecting the environment, as the sub-head tells readers that "Fencing threatens critters - and eco system."

The story goes on to note that the fence "would cut large swaths through sensitive habitat and harm rare or threatened species." The story reads like liberal environmental literature and even has time to push a non-green liberal cause: preventing border fencing.

Yet once again the left gets confused about the difference of opinion and actual balanced news.

NewsBusters reader Duane Weldon, who tipped us off to the Ustinova story, pointed out in an e-mail that a June 6th Associated Press story found "Illegal Immigrants Burying Border in Garbage."

Hmm. Wouldn't tons of garbage be a problem for the environment at the border too? So why didn’t the Express-News reporter mention it?

After all, the AP ran the border garbage story a full 13 days earlier.

Alas, the San Antonio Express-News decided not to mention anything about this big problem. Maybe because mentioning it could possibly be seen as advocating for strengthening border controls, which would cut against the usual liberal stance.

The AP story notes the cost of cleaning up the all the trash and restoring the land in Arizona (another state with its fair share of problems with illegal immigrants) will be $62.9 million dollars over five-years. This price tag is "for all forms of environmental remediating for immigration-related damage across southeast Arizona, including $23 million for the first year."

The AP reporter also addresses the impact on the animals. Arizona Game and Fish spokesman Dana Yost told the AP that, "Birds and mammals can get tangled up in it or eat it, causing digestive problems."

Isn't this garbage problem just as relevant to the environmental impact as the actual fencing?

Apparently not to the Express-News as there was absolutely no mention of it in the article, no local Game and Fish spokesman decrying the problem and no cost estimates to clean up all the trash. Are illegal immigrants crossing into Texas more environmentally conscious? Or is this just another example of liberal newspaper bias?

I'll let you decide.