It's illegal to destroy saguaro cacti. So why are they being removed for Trump's border wall?

[yortsed snacilbuper]

Former park ranger Laiken Jordahl documents a saguaro cactus on the ground after being uprooted and covered up by construction crews making way for new border wall in Arizona's Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on Februarty 18, 2020.

LUKEVILLE, Ariz. — In Arizona, cactus rustling — stealing or killing the state’s iconic saguaros is a felony. It’s illegal to shoot or deface the iconic cactuses or to remove them from parks, where the slow-growing succulents can reach more than 60 feet and live up to 200 years. Violators are pursued by state agricultural police, or “cactus cops.”

That hasn’t stopped federal contractors from plowing over saguaros to make room for President Donald Trump’s border wall.

At least a half-dozen saguaros were uprooted this month by crews clearing a dirt road next to new border fencing at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, about 150 miles southwest of Tucson, near the Lakeville border crossing.

Remains of the saguaros, some of which stood taller than the 30-foot wall, were dumped, under some other debris, near a hill that crews started blasting with explosives this month to build the wall. The company, Southwest Valley Constructors, has a $789 million contract from U.S. Customs and Border Protection to build 38 miles of border fence in the area.

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[spanone]

1. trump doesn't care about people let alone cacti.

[Blues Heron]

2. stiggin it - literally

[solara]

3. Simple: trump and all of his corrupt, nasty, soulless minions

are above the Law.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Laws are for the little people, not kings.

[durablend]

5. "Illegal"

That's so cute.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

6. I hate that animated pile of orange cat shit and all his minions.

[IcyPeas]

7. yeah, he don't care

[PufPuf23]

8. Is Trump's border wall exempt from NEPA?

Is an Environmental Impact Statement or at least an Environmental Assessment been completed or was a political decision made so that NEPA was suspended or ignored?