Debate over border security and illegal immigration is a constant in GOP presidential debates. Now, a Utah congressman wants to give greater authority to U.S. Homeland Security to stem immigration and drug trafficking.

While the bill is aimed at curbing problems on the nation's southern border, it's worded in a way that would also grant Homeland Security unfettered access along the northern border, where those issues aren't as severe.

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For instance, the bill would give the U.S. Border Patrol a pass on more than 30 existing laws, including the Clean Air Act, the Wilderness Act and the Federal Land Management Policy Act.

Republican Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah is the author of the bill, the National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act, which would allow Homeland Security the authority to build roads, erect fences and enact other measures within 100 miles of the Mexican and Canadian borders.

But without a more transparent strategy for the northern border, Bishop's bill seems like a solution in search of a problem, and it should be rejected.

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In announcing his bill, Bishop made several statements about the environment that are troubling because two of Minnesota's treasures -- the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park -- could be affected by his legislation. And, tellingly, Homeland Security officials didn't request Bishop's legislation, according to Jane Danowitz, director of the U.S. public lands program at the Pew Environment Group.

"We're talking about legislation that would basically, under the guise of national security, undo environmental laws that have been on the books for decades," Danowitz told a Star Tribune reporter.

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There's no doubt that the nation needs to be vigilant about its borders, but not at the expense of important environmental protections.

Read the full article, Editorial: Flawed Border Bill Should Be Rejected on the Star Tribune website.