To the Editor:
On Monday, February 11, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) planners will be in Laredo to begin assessing where to place a Wall within our South Texas community.
At a State of the Border address on Feb. 1, Felix Chavez, interim chief for the U.S. Border Patrol Laredo sector, presented information to justify the 150 river miles of Wall construction being requested for Webb and Zapata counties. CBP believes that a permanent, impermeable barrier is necessary to meet its goal of “operational control.”
To our dismay, we learned that of those 150 river miles, they want to specifically target Laredo’s middle reach as a top funding priority for the Wall.
This is a position with which we fiercely disagree.
This area represents the heart of Laredo’s urban center. It includes downtown, the Laredo College campus, densely populated middle-and-low income residential areas, and prime parks, trails and habitat for recreation, kayaking, and birding, which have made Laredo and the lower Rio Grande Valley a major destination for eco-tourists.
Historical data on illegal apprehensions clearly indicate that there is no urgent, or even impending, border crisis. The data shows that apprehensions for Laredo and the entire Southwest Border, in 2017, were at an all-time low similar to the early-1970s. The 2018 statistics reached one-fourth of their peak in 2000. As for illegal drug seizures, BP data show that more than 90 percent occur at the ports of entry.
Meanwhile, our government has waived every regulation for Wall construction on our biodiverse vega (river floodplain), dismantling protections that directly impact the security of Laredo’s only source of drinking water, which we share with 6 million people up and down the Rio Grande. In waiving the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act, Solid Waste Disposal Act and at least 20 other environmental laws, the Trump Administration threatens the health and safety of millions of Americans and Mexicans who live along the banks of this river.
Today’s border situation is complicated by the changing demographics of immigration. In the past, migrants were overwhelmingly single males from Mexico. Today, 78% are from countries other than Mexico, and family units and unaccompanied minors now make up 60% of illegal apprehensions.
Contributing factors include: violence and poverty in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador propelling migrants northward to legally seek asylum; an overloaded court system; and detention policies that complicate crossings at legal points of entry, creating incentives to cross between the ports.
This is a dramatic shift in migration patterns, which Border Patrol facilities aren’t designed to handle. A Wall does not address these deeper-rooted factors and therefore will not resolve the migrant situation at the border.
We therefore urge our Congressional leaders to budget zero dollars toward the Wall so that security dollars are better spent on more urgent and pressing measures: increasing staff and upgrading technology at our ports of entry and between the ports of entry.
We urge them to:
- restore all environmental laws which are vital to protect the health and welfare of all of us who live on the border;
- budget funding for southbound interdiction to intercept cash and guns flowing into Mexico, which embolden the drug cartels with greater resources; and
- propose policy changes to help resolve the factors that drive migrants from their countries.
- The consequences of constructing a Wall in Laredo’s urban center would devastate our landscape, ecology, cultural heritage, and quality of life.
Flooding could significantly increase in our lower-lying sister city, creating a wreckage whose risk will not even be addressed because of the dismissal of construction regulations. Hundreds of species of wildlife rely on river access for their survival. Relocating millions of dollars’ worth of city infrastructure located near the river’s edge illustrates real world costs of implementation.
To imperil this natural landmark and American Heritage River – which is the sole source of drinking water for millions of people – with an unjustifiable Wall for political posturing is an outrage.
Laredo is an historic community of the South Texas borderlands. Its lifeblood, the Rio Grande, has always been its No. 1 asset since our community’s founding 264 years ago in 1755. We cannot support this Wall especially when the Border Patrol’s own data contradict its conception, and the historically low apprehension rates clearly show that there is no border crisis.
The Rio Grande continues to rank as one of the 10 most endangered rivers in the world. Every effort must be made by our federal government to protect and preserve it; not to destroy it and the wildlife, drinking water, and dynamic communities that it sustains.
Melissa R. Cigarroa,
Board President
(956) 206-7590
cigarroa.melissa@gmail.com
Tricia Cortez, Executive Director
956-718-1063
tricia@rgisc.org
The Rio Grande International Study Center, founded in 1994, is an environmental advocacy group based in Laredo, TX.
Thank you, Melissa and Tricia. As a 72-year Laredo native and border resident, I concur with every word of your strong message. This proposed barrier is nothing less than a ridiculous monument to the a deranged and deluded ego presently besmirching the nation’s White House. The idea alone is embarrassing and indecent, but then it comes from a person who constantly embarrasses our country to other nations and delves into adulterous and illicit behaviors. A practicing psychologist once instilled in me the idea that one cannot hate another human being without actually living with him or her. Donald Trump makes it easy to defy that notion. He is truly racist and his desire to have a physical barrier between us and my grandparents’ country demonstrates his bigotry and immorality. You do well, my good friends, to speak up. To remain silent would evince approval and abetting wrongdoing. Thank you again. Our Democratic Representatives would do well to remember the words of the army of the duly elected Spanish government as it fought the forces of the dictator Francisco Franco in the 1930s, “No pasaran!”