U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt went on Thursday night’s edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” to discuss the “environmental benefits” of a border wall.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson began the conversation by noting that the constant waves of immigrants, some of whom are drug traffickers, damage “fragile desert ecosystems.”
“That’s been known for a long time,” said Carlson. “If you cared about the environment, you would care about that, and yet anyone who raises alarms is called names. We don’t care because we care about the environment and this country.”
“Well, the reality is that common sense says that when you have tremendous trafficking, trails, trash, debris and fires, you have a lot of damage to native vegetation, wildlife, and to the ecosystem,” said Bernhardt.
“Spewing trash, debris, and fires,” the Fox News host added. “So we are not allowed to be concerned about that. But if you care about the environment, that would be a concern, correct?”
Bernhardt agreed, noting that he has “personally inspected” borders sites and found that “where we put a wall, we have habitat restoration taking place” as well as “environmental flora and fauna” coming back.
“The reality is the wall will provide additional environmental benefits, and that is simply a fact,” he said. (RELATED: Tucker, Guest Rip ‘Schizophrenic’ Leftists Who Say They Care About The Environment, Yet Want To Import ‘Climate Migrants’)
The secretary theorized that environmental groups don’t point out the issue because “it doesn’t fit the narrative.”
“The reality is those people that claim to be the most opposed to the wall also claim to be the most pro-environmental supporters out there,” he said, adding that people who claim it’s immoral to oppose immigration have “never been there” and “seen the tremendous devastation.”
The president’s efforts to secure funding to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico have been met with resistance from Democrats. A federal judge ruled in December that several billion dollars in military funds cannot be diverted to fund the wall. However, the $1.4 trillion spending package passed Thursday does include $1.8 billion for the proposed border wall, far short of the $20 billion called for.