The Zapata County Commissioners Court passed a unanimous resolution Monday morning to send a message to Alejandro Mayorkas, the incoming Biden Administration’s new Secretary of Homeland Security, with several demands for Day 1 action.
Additionally, the State Democratic Executive Committee for the Texas Democratic Party unanimously approved the resolution on Saturday, while nearly 30 activists from Laredo called on the Laredo City Council on Monday evening to convene a special meeting this month to take up the resolution.
The Laredo activists demanded that the City Council not hold onto a false promise by the U.S. government to build a “riverwalk” in downtown Laredo in exchange for support for the wall.
“Spare us the ‘riverwalk’ sales pitch,’” activist Amy Gamboa told the Laredo City Council. “This would be just a half-mile in the 71 miles of prison wall. That means 99% of Laredo’s riverfront would still be replaced by a 30-foot wall.”
Environmental activist Juan Livas agreed, commenting, “The city manager’s office continues to negotiate with DHS on turning over miles of city property so that they can get their miniature bulkhead project, a clear example of overreaching one’s authority,” he said. “This is being done without fully informing the City Council, and in contradiction to the will of the people. How is this being allowed?”
Urgency for Special Called Meeting
Tricia Cortez, executive director of the Rio Grande International Study Center, underscored the urgency for a special called City Council meeting, given the recent lawsuit filed last Thursday by the U.S. government against El Azteca Housing Development for the low income Zaragoza Apartments on the riverfront.
“Residents in our city, particularly the most vulnerable, are under attack. One of Laredo’s most historic residential areas, with buildings dating back to the 1870s, is now under threat,” Cortez said, adding that El Azteca residents don’t have the resources or means to fight this battle against the government. “[Their voices] must be heard and uplifted by this council. They need you.”
Laredo resident Lola Norris, PhD, also pressed the City Council to take up the resolution. “Today, Zapata County passed it unanimously and without hesitation. Here in Laredo we have so much more at stake, so where is our leadership? Are you fighting for us, as much as the leaders of our neighboring areas are fighting for their residents?”
The South Texas resolution calls on the incoming Biden Administration to: 1) immediately declare a moratorium on construction and land condemnation pending a six-month review of the federal project, massive cost overruns, and questionable selection of contractors; 2) rescinding the 2019 false declaration of a national emergency for the southern border; and 3) ending the waiver of public input and dozens of federal laws meant to protect public health, pushed aside to rush construction of the wall.
Unanimous Support
Olga Elizondo, Zapata County commissioner whose precinct oversees the historic town of San Ygnacio, explained that the Monday vote was done to protect San Ygnacio from being split in two by the wall, and stop the unnecessary destruction of homesteads like that of Ernesto Uribe, a 91-year old Army veteran.
“Let them put me in jail” said Uribe of the federal government, which filed a lawsuit earlier this year to condemn his family’s ancestral lands.
Elsa Hull, a riverfront landowner in San Ygnacio and mother of two daughters, weighed in on the Zapata vote. “I’m proud to be represented by Zapata County, which once again demonstrated leadership in our region and has set the example for other governmental entities to follow by adopting this resolution,” she said. “This will set the stage to present a unified front of solidarity to President-elect Joe Biden that our voices will not be silenced, and we demand that he keep his campaign promise that ‘not one more foot’ of wall will be built.”
Sylvia Bruni, chair of the Webb County Democratic Party, said the wall “has threatened the very character of our South Texas border community” and “represents a useless and costly attempt at border security” and attacks the very cultural and historic fabric of border life, which she described as “a seamless relationship with our neighbors to the south that has existed for generations.”
She added, “It was therefore an honor for us to send this message of opposition to the Texas Democratic Party and soon, we expect, on to the national Democratic Party.”
To date, the Trump administration has ignored the election results and beefed up its legal team in its condemnation cases and announced the imminent start of construction in the Laredo Sector. Four contracts have been awarded totaling $1.05 billion to destroy 71 riverfront front miles in Laredo, Webb County, and Zapata County, threatening parks, neighborhoods, nature trails, historic sites, a community college, cemeteries and an orphanage. Despite litigation stretching over nine months, the government has yet to obtain title to land on any of the dozens of condemnation suits it has filed.
(For more information, visit: www.noborderwallcoalition.com.
The #NoBorderWall Laredo Coalition is a network of residents, elected officials, & organizations who oppose the border wall. Website: www.noborderwallcoalition.com | facebook.com/NoBorderWallCoalition | Insta: @noborderwall_ltx)
A border wall anywhere on Laredo’s Río Grande banks would prove detrimental to the riverine environment. Any sudden heavy rainfall between Del Río’s Amistad Dam and Laredo drains the Río Grande’s watershed, flash flooding through multiple arroyos from hundreds of square miles of Mexican and United States brush country and bring detritus against the proposed wall. The planned government constructed dirt roads on either side of the wall would exacerbate the erosion and the blockage will topple the wall regardless of the depth of the concrete base, much like New Orleans canal levee walls did with Hurricane Katrina in 2005. I saw this when I was living there. Local engineers should be aware of brushland flashdlood hydrology. I support and appreciate our government’s protection afforded by law enforcement efforts, and regardless of ecological destruction and upsetting this area’s wild fauna and ranching, a border wall is an insult to our borderland heritage, international diplomatic relationship, those of us with family and friends on both sides of the border, it would stand as an ugly monument to Donald Trump’s racism and deep-sitted egoistic stupidity.