Newly built border wall segment further endangers rare desert fish, conservation organization says

A newly built segment of border wall in southern Arizona will keep out more than just illegal immigrants, a nonprofit conservation organization says.

The border wall segment and a “paved road across Arizona’s California Gulch is blocking streamflow critical to the survival of one of only two U.S. populations of Sonora chub,” a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity reads.

The “rare desert fish” is a “small, moderately chubby fish that feasts on a variety of native food sources and has a unique and distinctly red coloration on the underside when in breeding condition,” the organization says.

“The new wall and road will push these imperiled fish to the brink of extinction,” Krista Kemppinen, Ph.D., a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. 

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“The Sonora chub’s survival depends on being able to access scarce desert water on both sides of the border, exchange genetic material with nearby populations in Mexico, and bolster its populations with upstream migrations of fish from Sonora after droughts. The new construction makes all that impossible,” she continued.

The organization drew attention to the matter just days before President-elect Donald Trump is set to retake office and ramp up his border security efforts.

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“Designating California Gulch as critical habitat is more urgent than ever to minimize other threats, such as by keeping cows out of the Sonora chub’s pools,” Kemppinen said in the statement. “It’s also imperative that carefully designed culverts be added to the new border infrastructure to allow at least some semblance of a natural streamflow and migration. If federal officials are serious about saving this fish, they need to act now.”

Earlier this month, Trump set off a fiery debate over whether Democrats should be to blame for California’s wildfires after he accused Gov. Gavin Newsom of caring more about protecting endangered fish species known as smelt than protecting the state’s residents from wildfires. 

Trump set off a firestorm on Wednesday when he called out Newsom on his Truth Social platform for wanting “to protect an essentially worthless fish” over protecting the water needs of Californians. The comments are not new, however. In the run-up to the November election, Trump made the claim during an October interview with podcaster Joe Rogan.

Neither the Center for Biological Diversity nor the Trump transition team responded to a request for comment regarding this story. 

Fox News’ Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.