By Paul Ingram | TucsonSentinel.com
“Clearly, we’re going to build a wall,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in Arizona during his first tour along the U.S.-Mexico border, but he said he will listen to experts to “mitigate” the effects of border barriers.
The Trump administration official finished the first leg of his “on-the-ground assessment” of federal lands by horseback on Saturday, riding with Border Patrol agents and officials from U.S. Fish and Wildlife along the border with Mexico near Sasabe, Ariz.
Clad in a cowboy hat, boots, and a green Border Patrol jacket, Zinke made sure to look the part, joining with the chief of Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, Rodolfo Karisch, and refuge manager Bill Radke to tour along the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, one of four areas managed by the Interior Department along Arizona’s southern border.
Zinke said that as secretary of Interior and as a “former Navy SEAL” it was important to get “outside of Washington, outside of politics” and come to the “front line, and meet the people who were there every day, putting their lives on the line, in defense of the border.”
Zinke said while he would talk to experts in the field, and try to mitigate the effects border barriers might have on wildlife and natural resources, “Clearly, we’re going to build a wall.”
