While the Border Wall is built, opponents work to tear it do
While the Border Wall is built, opponents work for ways to tear it down
by Sito Negron
The border wall, one piece of a centuries-old puzzle -- what is our relationship with Mexico? -- brought dozens of academics, activists, and political figures to El Paso for the Border Summit.
Posted on December 2, 2008
In 1971, the story goes, First Lady Pat Nixon said she hated to see fences anywhere, as she dedicated Friendship Park, where broken families can touch fingers through chain links on the border outside of San Diego. In 2008, President-elect Barack Obama gave a speech before 200,000 in Berlin where he spoke of the futility of walls.
From 1971 to 2008, in a near unbroken line of succession, those responsible for making the nation's laws or otherwise setting the nation's priorities have failed to understand the border as anything other than a threat -- witness the explosion in federal bureaucracies and paramilitary patrols. That may not change soon, despite Obama's inspiring speeches: The president-elect, for whom virtually all of border wall opponents voted, himself voted for the Border Fence Act in 2006, and analysts of immigration and security issues predict at least a year's worth of status quo, given the emphasis on the economy and given the team with which Obama has surrounded himself. [Napolitano, Homeland Security, and immigration policy, NPT, Nov. 25]
The border wall, one piece of a centuries-old puzzle -- what is our relationship with Mexico? -- brought dozens of academics, activists, and political figures to El Paso for the Border Summit, a discussion on strategies to, as several speakers put it, echoing President Ronald Reagan, "tear down that wall."
Among other impacts, the wall would cut off access to Friendship Park. [Intnl Herald Tribune, October, 2008]
In pictures and in words, the Summit kicked off with five presentations dealing with the environmental and social impact of the wall on the border.
By the end of the event, organizers hope to have connected people and organized a strategy with which to approach legislators to stop construction and mitigate the impacts of what's already been built.
"What we're trying to do here is put together recommendations," said Michael Degnan, a Sierra Club organizer. "We have to hand this off, and acknowledge our place in the process."
The opening presentations went west to east, taking in California, Arizona, El Paso, West Texas, and South Texas.
"I feel sorry for the Border Patrol in different ways. They've been told to have authority ... but they don't really know what I can and cannot do," said Dan Watman, of the Border Meetup Group, which goes regularly to Friendship Park.
The difference between the policy-makers, as represented by DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, who waived numerous laws to build the border wall, and those on the ground, such as the Border Patrol agents, was mentioned repeatedly.
Nat Stone, a journalist and filmmaker who showed a short video that tied together industrial degradation of the border -- the example being Asarco and the Camijno Real Landfill in Sunland Park -- with the idea that the border is a place where civil laws do not apply and thus is worthy only of a fence, said as he travels the border he frequently is pulled over by Border Patrol agents.
So, frequently, he gets to ask them questions, foremost of which is their opinion of the border wall.
"Consistently, they say it's just a waste of money," Stone said.
The wall as a political shortcut that really benefits only those who build it, and perhaps some politicians appeasing a home base, was another consistent theme.
Matt Clark, Southwest representative of Defenders of Wildlife, said that Sandia National Laboratories, for example, was asked a very narrow question when asked to review the border wall concept: How to create a barrier to foot and vehicular traffic.
Ana Cordova Vazquez, a researcher with El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, said that's the wrong question. For example, she said, a better question would be how to enhance security while protecting communities and wildlife. But nobody has asked Sandia that question, she said.
Stefanie Herweck, with the Rio Grande Valley No Border Wall Coalition, said that's largely a result of decisions made without regards to local communities.
"We had pundits pontificating about broken borders and politicians at the podium talking about the dangerous realities of the border we didn't experience," she said. "We have been cut off, marginalized from the national debate -- well, it's not really a debate."
She said border wall opponents need to "change the hearts and minds of the American people. That's why I'm so gratified to forge links with people who work for national organizations and local governments."
U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, (D-Calif.), said it's not just border wall opponents on the line who feel the isolation.
"It's lonely in Congress too," he said.
He said it was important to call it was it is -- a wall, not a fence -- and to understand the "physics" of the issue.
"Between any two countries in the world, this border has the biggest difference in standard of living," Filner said. "It's almost the law of physics (that) you're going to have people go from the poorer country to the richer."
He said that Obama might not touch the issue early in his term, because it's likely to attract the demagoguery of people "he might not want to deal with."
"We cannot let down our guard just because there's going to be an Obama administration," he said. "Although it's going to be a lot better."
Filner called for a "new paradigm," in which the U.S. helps Mexico develop into a wealthier, more stable country.
Following his comments, Herweck thanked Filner with a present: A bottle of No Border Wall pale ale.
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