In July, an obscure environmental impact report issued by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management was quickly embraced by anti-immigration activists because it found that undocumented migrants were an ecological threat to public lands in southern Arizona -- when they crossed the desert in numbers, a fragile ecosystem got, literally, trampled. Opposing advocates argued that the increasing militarization of the border was an even greater ecological threat than the migrants themselves.
Kwa Julai, ripoti ya mazingira iliyotolewa na idara ya uongozi wa mali kutoka magharibini ilikubaliwa haraka na wanaharakati wanaokataa uhamiaji kwasababu ilipata ati wahamiaji wasiokuwa na hati walikuwa tishio ya kiikolojia kwa mali za umma huko Arizona Kusini – walipovuka jangwa kwa wingi, waliharibu ikolojia hiyo. Wanaopinga walijadili ati ongezeko wa kijeshi kwa mpaka ilikuwa tishio kubwa zaidi kushinda wahamiaji wenyewe.