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Chertoff: Immigrants ‘degrade the environment.’»

Today, Homeland Security Chairman Michael Chertoff on Monday defended the construction of the border fence, by arguing that it’s good for the environment. “Illegal migrants really degrade the environment. I’ve seen pictures of human waste, garbage, discarded bottles and other human artifact in pristine areas,” he said. “And believe me, that is the worst thing you can do to the environment.”




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63 Responses to “Chertoff: Immigrants ‘degrade the environment.’”

  1. Dreary Urbanite Says:

    Chertoff - sounds like an immigrant name to me and he is definately degrading the environment.


  2. stopthecons Says:

    What a bunch of garbage - literally.

    It’s not immigrants, but the GOVERNMENT that is the biggest polluter in this country.

    And the US Mint and the Pentagon are right at the top of that list.

    We need to demand that the government stop polluting our water, our air and our soil.


  3. jonny Says:

    Who is Cherty gonna get to build the fence?


  4. stewarjt Says:

    Like chertoff/skeletor and his ilk give a hang about the environment!


  5. Kryptik Says:

    Did his gut tell him this?


  6. Candyce Says:

    Dirty, filthy immigrants!


  7. Badmoodman Says:

    Uh oh, he’s seen PICTURES!! Chertoff would prefer assessing a situation from 20,000 feet like Bush does, but he doesn’t have that kind of rank.


  8. Naturegal Says:

    Interesting how that AP piece said nothing about the fact that Bush waived all environmental laws in the building of the fence, so none of the government’s actions could be legally challenged.

    If they really thought the fence would be good for the environment, they wouldn’t have been afraid of environmental law in America.


  9. Wayne Says:

    “Illegal migrants really degrade the environment. I’ve seen pictures of human waste, garbage, discarded bottles and other human artifact in pristine areas,” he said. “And believe me, that is the worst thing you can do to the environment.”

    Hey Chertoff, that wasn’t illegal migrants. Those pictures were from after the “Young Republicans” meeting.


  10. AMcG773 Says:

    Yeah, you know white people never, ever litter.


  11. toasterhead Says:

    Interesting take, considering the environmental effects of building a 1,960-mile fence along the border.


  12. Tenebrae Says:

    Right…a few bottles and human watse is SO much more damaging than fracturing ecosystems and blocking migration routes…

    When will these people ever listen to the real scientific community??? (Never, since reality doesn’t mess with what the “base” wants to hear.)


  13. ES Says:

    how completely ignorant


  14. Rowdy Says:

    Have you seen the trash in most urban areas…? It’s not only along the borders… it’s everywhere and it’s not the immigrants doing it. We’re all guilty of trashing the planet. This is a terrible excuse to go after the brown skins!

    Hmmm.. Chertoff sounds kind of Russian… is he a commie? Better get rid of him… look what they did in Chernobyl!!!


  15. nwyman Says:

    i’ve heard they’re bad for your health and are a leading cause of high cholesterol… *insert sarcasm*


  16. Leftside Annie Says:

    Jebus. These people hate EVERYBODY.

    *shudder*


  17. Race Condition Says:

    Because it couldn’t possibly be the self-righteous, entitlement-minded, selfish, legal residents and citizens with no sense of the consequences of their actions. I’ve seen a whole lot more white trash rednecks in pimped-out Jeeps littering and pissing on the environment than illegal immigrants who, for the most part, just want a better life.


  18. And Yet... Says:

    Chertoff tries for profound soundbite on regulating immigration, inserts head further up ass instead. Film @ 11…


  19. Mugsy Says:

    By that reasoning, the solution isn’t a $500 million dollar wall on the border, it’s a $25 million dollar RECYCLING CENTER.


  20. Juan C. Says:

    yet want millions upon millions of people to immigrate from countries who could care less about it!
    Comment by C T V 1

    Links or STFU, please.


  21. Bobwurst Says:

    What about the people who hire undocumented workers michael? Send some of those fatcat republicans to jail and the jobs would dry up . but that would mean you would pay more for lawn care.


  22. Bobwurst Says:

    “leftie” must be the label of the day in troll land…


  23. toasterhead Says:

    Then come here legally! What’s with you leftists? There’s a right way and a illegal way to enter this country and you are supporting a group of people who are breaking our laws!

    Comment by Michael — October 1, 2007 @ 2:12 pm

    Unfortunately, the legal way can take 10-15 years for people from South and Central America.

    And don’t forget that the poverty most of these “illegals” are coming to the U.S. to escape is a direct result of U.S. foreign intervention, trade agreements, and exploitation of lax labor laws by U.S. corporations.


  24. Race Condition Says:

    If the wrong-wing people want to put a stop to immigration, how about helping those second and third-world countries improve their homelands so that there isn’t a huge economic draw from the United States? These people are here to find good-paying jobs that they can’t get at home. If immigration is so odious to you, work to solve the problem instead of throwing away your money on a fence that doesn’t even cover a third of the border.


  25. Nevar Says:

    Yeah, he’s seen pictures. Whoop tee doo!

    Does this imply that he is head of homeland security, and hasn’t even been to the borderlands he is supposed to be defending?

    Kind of like Christie Todd Whitman from EPA in the days after 9/11, except that she at least went there. Sort of. Even though she didn’t roll the windows down in her limo.


  26. Nevar Says:

    Oh, and I don’t know of many doctoral candidates still believing “STFU” to be a credible response.

    Comment by C T V 1 — October 1, 2007

    I wasn’t imaging you would know any.
    You need to get out into the real world a little more, bass boy…


  27. Nevar Says:

    I don’t hear of many white people sh*tting in their yard or, in this case, at the border. The “white people did it too” defense remains hollow.

    Comment by C T V 1

    Man oh man, you DO need to get out more.
    Take a drive thru Texas some time…
    LOL


  28. Juan C. Says:

    And don’t forget that the poverty most of these “illegals” are coming to the U.S. to escape is a direct result of U.S. foreign intervention, trade agreements, and exploitation of lax labor laws by U.S. corporations.
    Comment by toasterhead

    Thank you. I was going to throw that in the face of the trolls here.


  29. Nevar Says:

    What’s nevar said is always heard.


  30. Ms_Joanne Says:

    Actually, Chertoff (the dumbest f*ck on the planet), nuclear war is the worst thing you could do to the planet.

    Ya think you might be able to stay away from that one?

    Didn’t think so.


  31. Juan C. Says:

    CTV…maybe there is light in there, but nobody´s home.


  32. The Republic of Stupidity Says:

    You might wanna complain about right wing greed heads who hire illegals to increase their profits, while you’re at it.

    Bush and the GOOPers had total control of the Fed for a while there, and they did NOTHING about this one.


  33. Bobwurst Says:

    The link is that everyone wants to come here, yet we can’t accomodate them all. Ever hear of the competition of scarce resources?

    Comment by C T V 1

    Hint: when someone asks you for a link, they mean a website or document that contains the facts you are citing….

    like, “I’d like a link to your source for post 33″. Otherwise, you are just going to be thought of around here as “the missing link”.


  34. theswan Says:

    Obviously those “pristine areas” would be better suited for a drill rig or ATV course.


  35. Bobwurst Says:

    “What about the people who hire undocumented workers michael?

    Comment by Bobwurst”

    What does that have to do with immigrants entering this country illegally? Do you leftists support breaking the law?

    If you remove the demand the supply will dry up. dumbass. Why do you facists insist on protecting your own lawbreakers?


  36. toasterhead Says:

    What does that have to do with immigrants entering this country illegally? Do you leftists support breaking the law?

    Comment by Michael — October 1, 2007 @ 2:40 pm

    Yes, when we think the law is unjust. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. supported breaking the law as well.


  37. rastaman Says:

    ooooooooooooh…..it’s the ENVIRONMENT! i see now…

    you’re doing a heckuva job cherty


  38. toasterhead Says:

    I don’t care if it takes 50 years, we have immigration laws and you leftists are supporting breaking the law!

    Comment by Michael — October 1, 2007 @ 2:42 pm

    No, we are supporting changing the law to make a system that works, not building a moronic and expensive fence in a futile attempt to enforce a crappy law.


  39. Bobwurst Says:

    don’t hear of many white people sh*tting in their yard or, in this case, at the border. The “white people did it too” defense remains hollow.

    Comment by C T V 1

    i spent a week this summer canoeing on the Canadian border. I “shit” in the woods. That’s what you do when you’re outside for long periods of time. I’m sure that once those dirty people get to your community and are doing your yard work and cleaning the hotel rooms you stay in, they shit in toilets.


  40. toasterhead Says:

    Let’s do it! But stop being complicit with these illegals?

    Comment by Michael — October 1, 2007 @ 2:47 pm

    No. I think I’ll side with them and look for a holistic approach to address the root causes of their migration, and at the same time repair a fundamentally racist and flawed immigration system. A fence accomplishes neither of these things, and in fact may make the poverty worse for agricultural Mexican communities close to the border whose livelihoods depend on animal migration.


  41. Bobwurst Says:

    “Why did a liberal California judge suspend the administration’s effort to crack down on undocumented workers?”

    How do you know he/she is a liberal? Where is the link to this story? Why won’t bush stop the illegal invasion of the mole people?


  42. Jackie Says:

    That famous Gut feeling man is at it again. When he says something it’s stupid. Our earth is being polluted yet it’s only the immigrants. Just think this idiot could have been the Attorney General scary. Chertoff is scared that the White House will replace him with Jack Bauer as this Administration doesn’t know the difference between fake or real.


  43. Wayne Says:

    I don’t hear of many white people sh*tting in their yard
    Comment by C T V 1

    No, but i SAW you shitting on veterans today in another thread, scumbag.


  44. missmolly Says:

    Funny how lefties “care” for the environment, yet want millions upon millions of people to immigrate from countries who could care less about it!

    Comment by C T V 1 — October 1, 2007 @ 2:15 pm

    Apparently, you think that people sneak into this country just so they can litter freely? FYI, people do NOT cross the border illegally just so they can dump their trash on our side instead of theirs.

    Much of that litter comes because A) there are no toilet facilities in the middle of the desert, B) there are no trash cans or dumpsters in the middle of the desert, and C) when a truck comes to pick up people who have crossed the border, they pack as many people into it as they can, forcing people to leave belongings behind.

    People have differing opinions about illegal immigration and how to deal with it. And I agree that litter is unsightly and it can damage ecosystems (although less in a desert than in a wetlands, for example). The point is that Chertoff thinks that littering is the “worst thing you can do to the environment”. The fact that he thinks this is a crisis more dire than global warming, destruction of the ozone layer, air pollution, water pollution, tropical rainforest destruction, etc. shows us that he’s deluded.


  45. Wayne Says:

    Comment by Michael — October 1, 2007 @ 2:56 pm

    Heard from Zooey you were looking for me this weekend.

    Were you going to explain why you, who claim you are a Navy veteran, did not know what a NEC ( Navy Enlisted Classification ) was, until it had to be explained to you?
    Like we had to explain to you what a dd214 was, months ago?


  46. OxyCon Says:

    Chertoff forgot to include the dead bodies littering the area along the border. They’re really bad for the environment.


  47. toasterhead Says:

    Give us an example?

    Comment by Michael — October 1, 2007 @ 2:50 pm

    Sure! Let’s start with the CIA-sponsored coup of President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in 1954, which occurred after intense lobbying by the United Fruit Company in order to prevent Arbenz from purchasing UFC-owned land and turning it over to indigenous native Americans.

    Or how about the assassination of Panamanian President Omar Torrijos in 1981, also for the crime of land redistribution?

    Then how about the disastrous “Washington Consensus” structural adjustment programs instituted by the World Bank and IMF throughout the 80s and early 90s that left much of Latin America heavily in debt and in economic disarray?


  48. missmolly Says:

    “What about the people who hire undocumented workers michael?

    Comment by Bobwurst”

    What does that have to do with immigrants entering this country illegally? Do you leftists support breaking the law?

    Comment by Michael — October 1, 2007 @ 2:40 pm

    No, we leftists don’t support breaking the law. It’s just that we are realistic. We recognize that Mexicans have been swarming into this country for a long time despite it being illegal, and are likely to continue to do so. We’d like to see some alternate approaches to solving the problem, instead of staying the current course and complaining about the “lawbreakers”.

    Why do Mexicans come here? Mostly for work. When Bobwurst pointed out the people who hire undocumented workers, you asked what that had to do with people entering illegally. If you can’t connect people coming here illegally in order to get paying work with businesses looking for cheap labor, I doubt there’s any explanation simple enough for you to understand.


  49. toasterhead Says:

    Our immigration laws apply to everyone regardless of the color of their skin. Until these laws are change the current ones need to be enforced. Until then, build that wall NOW!

    Comment by Michael — October 1, 2007 @ 2:56 pm

    Wrong. Our immigration laws were formulated in order to preserve the white majority by establishing preferences for family members of existing (white) citizens and for people with higher education and needed skills, mostly to be found in Western Europe.


  50. toasterhead Says:

    If you can’t connect people coming here illegally in order to get paying work with businesses looking for cheap labor, I doubt there’s any explanation simple enough for you to understand.

    Comment by missmolly — October 1, 2007 @ 3:13 pm

    Hence his obsession with the fence. People of Michael’s ilk cant deal with complex issues like economics.


  51. deebaser Says:

    “What about the people who hire undocumented workers michael?

    Comment by Bobwurst”

    What does that have to do with immigrants entering this country illegally? Do you leftists support breaking the law?
    —–

    It has EVERYTHING to do with illegal immigration. If there is no work, then there is no illegal immigration.

    The best way to “solve” the issue of illegal immigration permanently is to give a one time amnesty to all the ones currently here and simultaneously make it a felony with severe mandatory minimums for hiring undocumented labor.

    If we toughen up the law without amnesty, we’ll have millions of people unemployable in the US. The crime rate would go through the roof.


  52. Leftside Annie Says:

    Hey, idiot Michael - WE JUST WANT THE FLEEPING BUSHIES TO OBEY OUR LAWS.


  53. missmolly Says:

    Until then, build that wall NOW!

    Comment by Michael — October 1, 2007 @ 2:56 pm

    There are already many Mexicans who feel that entering the United States is worth all the hardships (including possible death) that a border crossing entails. You think a wall will stop them? It might slow down a few, but tunnels will still be dug (and they’ll increase with a wall in place), and coyotes will continue to bribe border guards — whatever it takes for people to cross.

    Try googling the words Mexico border tunnel and see what you come up with. And these tunnels are used to smuggle people AND drugs.


  54. Anonymouse Says:

    Sounds like he must have renewed his Sierra Club membership.


  55. missmolly Says:

    Good point. And besides, we need white people in the minority to boot. I want to be in the minority, on my knees to the third-world superpower.

    Comment by Shayne — October 1, 2007 @ 3:27 pm

    Sarcasm noted. Seriously, what do YOU suggest?


  56. Wayne Says:

    Michael, you run off again?

    Hilarious…

    Comment by Shayne

    Sarcasm?


  57. Jackie Says:

    Should the GOP succeed in removing the immigrants
    we will need people to do their jobs so Americans can still shop for veggies and make sure the fields are taken care of. The White House and the GOP will always be able to get Blacks back in the fields are where they started. With the help of the Supreme Court dismantling the Civil Rights Bill those jobs will be filled quickly. Let’s hope Magic, Oprah, Senator Obama, Michael Jordan and other rich Blacks pack their bags and leave the country quick. Justice Thomas is getting ready now that’s why he’s crying.
    For all those Americans who weren’t born to see the way it was in the 1900s you’ll get your chance.
    This way the GOP wont have to worry about the minority vote because minorities were not allowed to vote they had no Rights at all. The worked for a Master and lived in shacks with no education.
    It could say on Social Security too. Look this is how the United States became Great as it have the Rich and the Poor. Connie Rice already has her position under George W. Bush that wont change when the South raises again.


  58. tablogloid Says:

    Chertoff himself is a hazardous waste product.


  59. tablogloid Says:

    comment 91: ????


  60. hewhoisabouttobeflamed Says:

    I am wondering: since when did criticizing the leaving of trash, etc. in the environment equal racism?
    If this discussion of illegal immigration is going to go forward at least three things need to happen:
    1) we have to quit with the knee-jerk response of calling ‘racism’ on any statement about the illegals and their impact on this country, good, bad or neutral.
    2) we must accept that there are in fact, some negative effects on the country from illegal immigration, just as there are positive ones.

    Anyhow, once everyone calms down, maybe you should read this for a bit of a reality check:

    http://www.slate.com/id/2131722/entry/2131710/


  61. Marie Says:

    Yeah, I am sure that any pile of human dung is more environmentally offensive than the coyote dung. The water bottles strewn along the bike path nearby are so much more environmentally-friendly than any on the Texas border.
    Chertoff is an environmental hazard.
    And the man he serves, with his cronies, are polluting everything they touch, including the air we breathe.
    His oil friends at BP have decided that pumping ammonia and other contaminants into Lake Michigan is a good thing — after years of effort in cleaning up the Great Lakes.
    Chertoff should keep his mouth shut and let people think he is an idiotic sycophant rather than speak and prove it.


  62. Leftside Annie Says:

    Good point. And besides, we need white people in the minority to boot. I want to be in the minority, on my knees to the third-world superpower.

    Comment by Shayne — October 1, 2007 @ 3:27 pm

    Shayne - we are *already* on our knees to at least two “third-world superpowers”…China and Saudi Arabia. Seriously.

    And… the last *I* heard, “liberal judges” had nothing whatsoever to do with the Bushies flushing the Constitution down the toilet. The so-called “liberal judges” have tried to stop them. Maybe all that Kool-Aid gives you a different perspective, eh?


  63. cal1942 Says:

    ““And don’t forget that the poverty most of these “illegals” are coming to the U.S. to escape is a direct result of U.S. foreign intervention

    Comment by toasterhead”

    Give us an example?

    Comment by Michael”

    OK Mikey how about the trade agreements that allowed subsidized US farm exports to Mexico and beyond that ruined thousands upon thousands of Latin American farmers and their workers who now form the bulk of deperate immigrants.

    Or how about the ‘export’ of American “free trade” theory in the 80s and 90s that ruined so many Latin American economies and impoverished millions; also a significant source of immigration. And it wasn’t just the theory. it was demanded by the US controlled World Bank and IMF.

    Immigration of people from Latin America to the US in very large numbers in recent years is for a reason Mikey and only the dominant nation in the hemisphere can have so profound an effect.

    Mikey do you really suppose that people leave their homes and risk their lives to journey to a strange place if they weren’t absolutely desperate?



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