Environmentalists have long claimed that the construction of several sections of the new border fence between the United States and Mexico is threatening important habitat. The Los Angeles Times today reports on how the Department of Homeland Security has virtually wiped flat a canyon near Tijuana that has long served as a route for border smuggling. As the article states, "With construction well underway, it's clear that few of the 500 miles of new border fencing projects are transforming the environment as radically as the three miles from the Smuggler's Gulch area to the coast." The San Diego Audubon Society's Jim Peugh notes that the federal government's 2005 decision to waive all environmental laws has the potential to cause a great deal of environmental damage:

"We've lost sensitive habitat, and the estuary is now threatened," said Jim Peugh, conservation chairman of the San Diego Audubon Society. "I'm really disappointed that our system wasn't allowed to work the way it has historically and is required to by law."