No sooner did I write about the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) throwing a damper on the construction and operation of a detention facility dubbed Alligator Alcatraz in Florida last week, when the whole shebang of a shitshow resurfaced much closer to my new residence.
Last week the dubious Department of Homeland Security up and decided to construct a large tent facility in El Paso, TX, at an Army base known as Fort Bliss, for which the adjacent missile range is due south of me in New Mexico, roughly 50 miles away.
Fort Bliss has the kind of history that others are already noting is nothing to be proud of, including internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. History is apparently repeating itself, to the detriment of all human decency. Not to mention those of us living within a 75-mile range of this latest atrocity.
In last week’s blog post, I noted that NEPA requires federal agencies to address potential adverse environmental impacts to the surrounding community prior to taking any action on any given planned project. I also just happened to note, as an example, that NEPA doesn’t even let the US Marine Corps construct military housing on any of its bases without first engaging in NEPA analysis in the form of extensive documentation and subsequent public comment.
One ponders if perhaps Fort Bliss, as in the Department of Army within the Department of Defense, thinks it’s being sneaky by merely claiming to be constructing a “tent facility” in order to get around NEPA or anything else. But, bottom line for these bottom feeders, is that the military doesn’t just get to do whatever it wants on a military facility, and neither does the idiotic and despicable Department of Homeland Security, which is anything but and never has been since it was hastily created as a knee-jerk reaction to 9/11.
The sickest thing—and most telling in terms of pretty damn clear NEPA applicability—about this diabolical DHS endeavor is found at the beginning of ICE’s 80-page document regarding its so-called “staging facility” at Fort Bliss:
“The objective of this contract is to obtain all infrastructure, including temporary housing structures, physical plant, staffing, resources, services, and supplies necessary to house aliens in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a safe and secure environment to effectuate their removal from the United States.”
Several things to unpack—or perhaps upchuck over—in that long-winded, utter bullshit of a declaration. First, care to guess just how many potential adverse environmental impacts result from the lamentable laundry list of intent that includes building actual structures and plants and bringing in folks to operate them? Air quality impacts? Depletion of local resources such as water and other utilities? Increased traffic on base and surrounding area? Health hazards to those already living and working on base?
Second, don’t get me started on the hapless and heinous use of aliens as a term for human beings who don’t happen to hail from the US. Literally the entire snarky premise of my Other Worldly novels.
Finally, the gobsmacking hapless hubris of those who would use the phrase “safe and secure environment” when they are not concerned one iota about safety, security, or the environment as it pertains to anyone adversely affected by their planned detention facility, including those who live and work at Fort Bliss or anywhere nearby.
It’s evident that, like everything else they do, this administration is literally too stupid to realize or care that military bases are not their personal playgrounds for appeasing the woeful wish lists of DHS thugs and ICE goons so that they can engage in not-to-slick attempted subterfuge and flat-out sadism, or carry out any other sick plans with respect to anyone who doesn’t appear to be a white American.
I’m just wondering how long it’s going to take the media and everyone else addressing this as a repeat of WWII history—including lawyers—to figure out that NEPA, a law passed during the Nixon Administration back in 1970, actually applies to this situation just as it does at Alligator Alcatraz.