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Nearly a mile of national wildlife refuge borderland near Sasabe will be traded to allow completion of border fencing, federal agencies announced Friday. It drew criticism from an environmental group.

The Department of Homeland Security will acquire 5.8 acres along the border now part of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. It needs the land to complete a seven-mile stretch of fencing to slow illegal immigration there.

That land, 8-10ths of a mile along the Mexican border, was privately owned 100 years ago and later was acquired by the refuge, about 60 miles southwest of Tucson.

As such, it was not part of a 60-foot wide easement on the border's edge being used to build fencing aimed at stopping illegal immigrants and drug traffickers — including seven miles of so-called pedestrian fencing in the Sasabe corridor.

Under the exchange, Customs and Border Protection and its parent agency, DHS, are to buy and transfer to the refuge adjacent land of comparable habitat and value.

The refuge's acting manager and a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the decision eliminates any need to show the fencing would be compatible with the refuge.

But Defenders of Wildlife spokesman Matt Clark said the fence won't be compatible with the refuge's mission or regulations.

Construction began on Wednesday — the same day Fish and Wildlife notified Customs and Border Protection of the decision and authorized it to begin, said Sally Gall, the refuge's acting manager.

The fencing will consist of 18-foot-tall concrete-filled steel posts 4 inches apart — called bollards. The posts are pre-made in 8-foot-wide panels and set 3 feet deep in concrete, she said.

"They've already cleared the area and erected some of the panels," Gall said. "They're moving fast. I wouldn't be surprised if they're finished by next week."

"Because this land exchange has not occurred yet and construction of this wall has already begun," Clark said, "they are currently constructing the wall across national wildlife refuge lands without a finalized compatibility determination."

He contended that building walls and fragmenting habitat is incompatible with the refuge system's mission or regulations.

Clark also said he believes a separate compatibility determination would be required for a land exchange.

"Not only have they not identified the lands, the exchange hasn't occurred ... and now they're constructing, which means that they are putting the cart before the horse," he said.

He also noted that Fish and Wildlife's Refuge Manual calls fragmentation of wildlife habitats "a direct threat to the integrity of the National Wildlife Refuge System," and says uses that "fragment habitats on a national wildlife refuge will not be compatible."

Clark contended that species facing an impact include the endangered jaguar, the lesser long-nosed bat, the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl, deer and mountain lions.

But Fish and Wildlife spokesman Jose Viramontes said a biological opinion concluded that a fence was "not likely to cause jeopardy to the continued existence of the jaguar."

Gall said a land exchange was proposed while former refuge manager Mitchell Ellis was reviewing public comments on a draft compatibility determination.

With an exchange agreed to, compatibility is not required, either for the land where the fence will sit or for a new piece of land for the refuge, because there will be no new use planned, she said.

Gall said there has not been enough study to look at the long-term impacts on wildlife, "but we all know that barriers can't be good for them.