October 28, 2019

In 2016, the border wall was one of the signature issues of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. It’s currently quite unpopular. More than 60 percent of people oppose the border wall, according to a Gallup poll conducted earlier this year. To improve public interest in the issue, the Trump administration is rolling out some new claims to try to give the $21 billion boondoggle fresh appeal. Its latest claim: the border wall will be good for the environment.

According to a press release published last week, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is currently in the process of assessing the environmental impact of border crossings in hopes of pitching the border wall as an environmentally conscious project. “Illegal crossings are destroying our wilderness areas with unlawful fires, trash, foot traffic, and trails,” BLM deputy director for programs and policy William Perry Pendley said in a statement. “The federal government will not only address the humanitarian and national security crisis facing our nation, but allow the BLM to address the environmental crisis impacting our nation’s most vulnerable lands.” According to the BLM, border crossings are responsible for “land degradation and destruction caused by the creation of unauthorized trails, the deposition of trash, and unlawful fires.”