Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke talks with reporters in Sasabe, Arizona, at the U.S.-Mexico border.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke was at the Arizona border over the weekend and left no question that he and President Trump remain committed to building a major wall along the southern border.
Zinke and members Customs and Border Protection rode up to waiting reporters in Sasabe on horseback.
"It's good to come out go on a ride — talk face-to-face about the issues that affect both departments, in support of the president's agenda. Clearly, we are going to build a wall. Clearly, the design is not finished and in some places — two walls."
VIEW LARGER Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke rides with members of the Tucson Sector Border Patrol in Sasabe, Arizona. Dan Millis, who heads up the Sierra Club Borderlands division, said the humanitarian costs of building more walls has resulted in hundreds of deaths of migrants trying to cross the border in sections without barriers and in more remote desert regions. Millis says there are also environmental costs.
"Walls don’t work. They don’t help. In fact, they cause a lot of additional damage, such as flooding when the flash floods come through. And wildlife impacts — blocking migration and wildlife habitat.
Zinke billed his border trip as a fact-finding mission. Millis billed it as more of a photo-op to deliver the same message: Trump will build his wall. According to a statewide survey of Arizona voters by the Pew Center, a majority of Arizonans do not want that.
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