DOUGLAS, Arizona (CNN) -- It's a tale of homeland security concerns blocking wildlife management, and the hue and cry that ensues.



This photo, taken by Warner Glenn in 1996, is believed to be the first of a live jaguar in the United States.



When most people think of jaguars, they think of the jungles of Central and South America, not the remote desert ranges between the United States and Mexico.



That region is known as mountain lion country, and that's what rancher Warner Glenn thought he was tracking when he saddled up his mules on a summer day 12 years ago near Douglas, Arizona.



Glenn has hunted mountain lions for 60 years, since he was eight years old. But Glenn was stunned when he saw what his hunting dogs had chased up to a high mountain perch.



The rancher took what's believed to be the first photo of a live jaguar in the United States. But it wasn't his last. In 2006, some 40 miles away, Glenn and his hunting party again cornered a jaguar -- a different one.



Jaguars, an endangered species, have a breeding population in northern Mexico. Scientists believe there are no more than 120 left in the wild there.



It's believed that since 1910, the cats are only visitors north of the border. They have been virtually unstudied here until recently.



But Glenn and other conservationists worry that the possible return of breeding jaguars to the United States could be stopped in its tracks. The reason: the border fence.



Last month the Department of Homeland Security waived 30 environmental laws to finish 470 miles of the fence by the end of the year.



Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told Congress that the agency continues to talk to some 600 landowners along the border to get their input. But in order to comply with the congressional mandate, he said, there is no time to deal with "unnecessary delays caused by administrative processes or potential litigation."



"We are currently in a lawless situation at the border," says Chertoff. "I feel an urgency to get this tactical infrastructure in. And although we're going to be respectful of the environment, we're going to be expeditious."



Two environmental groups, Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, have filed appeals with the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming the waivers are unconstitutional and set a dangerous precedent.



"National security and environmental protection do not have to be at odds with each other," says Defenders of Wildlife spokesman Matt Clark. "If we can drop this arbitrary deadline for constructing the fence and go through the proper procedures, then there are inevitably ways to minimize environmental impact, but as it is now it's throwing all of those laws out the window."



Mountain lion tracker Jack Childs also worries about the impact of the fence on local wildlife, especially the jaguar.



Childs captured the first video of a live jaguar in the late summer of 1996, a few months after Warner Glenn.  Watch Childs and Glenn talk about efforts to preserve the jaguar »



"I knew historically there had been a few jaguars sighted in Arizona but in the last hundred years never in any numbers."



His encounter sparked a passion for the big cats. Along with wife Anna and biologist Emil McCain, he created the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project.  See images of the controversy »



Childs and McCain hike into remote mountain areas where the jaguars roam and have placed more than 50 motion sensor cameras near the border. They've taken 69 photos of three different jaguars since 2001, including several of the same cat Childs first saw in 1996.



He has nicknamed that cat Macho B.



A jaguar's spots are like fingerprints -- each cat has a unique set. One of the spots on Macho B resembles a Pinocchio cartoon figure, and that's how they identify him.



"We spend a lot of time walking along the border during the daytime, and we actually find his tracks going through the fence, so we know for sure that he crosses back and forth," says Childs.



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What agencies are looking for solution? What laws did homeland security waive? where are the jaguars What group did the conservatist work for?
Homeland Security environmental Central and South America, Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club,
question: What agencies are looking for solution?, answer: Homeland Security | question: What laws did homeland security waive?, answer: environmental | question: where are the jaguars, answer: Central and South America, | question: What group did the conservatist work for?, answer: Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club,