Author: mopress

The following column will appear this weekend–gm

By Nick Braune
Mid-Valley Town Crier
by permission

I attended a meeting last weekend near La Joya, where Valley environmentalists were proposing a coalition to oppose the “border wall.” One person I recognized there was Scott Nicol of Weslaco. An artist and a South Texas College art instructor, Nicol is also an environmentalist and active in a chapter of the Sierra Club. He is an informed, concerned citizen, as you will soon learn.

Author: At the weekend meeting, there were people from various groups. I know that no one speaks for everyone, but could you briefly characterize the general worries about Homeland Security’s proposed wall?

Nicol: The Secure Border Fence Act of 2006 mandated, “at least two layers of reinforced fencing,” in “priority areas” along the US/Mexico border. One of these “priority areas” extends continuously from Laredo to Brownsville. This would tear through riparian habitat that is critical for the survival of the ocelot and the jaguarondi, both of which are federally endangered species.

It would also destroy habitat that migrating birds, butterflies, and bats rely on to rest and refuel. This area includes the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, the Bentsen Rio Grande and Roma Bluffs World Birding Centers, and a wildlife corridor that US Fish and Wildlife has spent 20 years and 70 million dollars to piece together.

Author: At the meeting, environmentalists mentioned the Real ID Act. Tell us about that.

Nicol: In 2005, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wanted to build a 14 mile section of wall south of San Diego, California, through the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve. Because it was 15 feet high and involved scalping two hillsides to fill in a gulch to keep the wall and its road level, it soon ran afoul of environmental laws. So the Real ID Act was created, to waive any legal restrictions, at the sole discretion of the DHS Secretary.

Secretary Chertoff promptly waived the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act. The Real ID Act applies to any border wall that DHS builds, and Chertoff has reportedly already written a waiver for the Texas section.

Author: I suspect that there are other ethical concerns that drive you on this issue. Do you see the wall giving the wrong message about our country and its people?

Nicol: Yes, spending billions on a 700-mile-long wall on the border with Mexico, but not one dime on a wall between the US and Canada, strikes me as blatantly racist. The Secure Border Fence Act was signed two weeks before the midterm elections in a last ditch effort to rouse certain conservative voters. It is politics of the worst kind, scapegoating and demonizing immigrants to distract voters and avoid taking constructive action. Despite the “fence” label, it is a wall like the one that divided Berlin, and it sends a similar message to Mexico and the world.

Author: I mentioned in a previous column that the wall is one more reflection of the militarization of the border. (For example, there was almost military secrecy on the fence for a while, Homeland saying one thing about it but there being other, broader, plans in the works.) We have so many police in the Valley, and we have huge detention centers; I am afraid of the psychological climate, a “garrison state” feeling. Any comments on this?

Nicol: If the Texas border wall follows the pattern of the California section, it will cut off farmers from the river, which accounts for nearly all of the Valley’s irrigation water. It will discourage Mexican nationals from legally crossing the border to shop, and they currently account for an estimated 25% of retail sales in McAllen and Brownsville. It will destroy the area’s ecotourism industry, which brings in millions of dollars every year. Only the Border Patrol will thrive, with a promised massive increase in funds and manpower. If you cripple every major segment of the economy except security, a garrison state is all that you have left.

Author: What should my readers do, if they agree with you?

Nicol: Contact politicians at every level, from mayors to senators, and demand that they work to repeal the Secure Border Fence Act and the Real ID Act. For all the talk about a “virtual” fence or delays, the law on the books calls for “at least two layers of reinforced fencing” running continuously from Laredo to Brownsville, with completion by Spring 2008. So long as that is federal law, Homeland Security has no real choice, despite their constantly changing statements about how they plan to proceed. This border wall is far too destructive to go unchallenged.

Email from Jay Johnson-Castro.

Hola y’all…

Exciting news in the making. Freedom Ambassadors has been contacted by yet another coalition. The Valley Coalition…of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. This is a coalition of. La Uni*n Del Pueblo Entero(LUPE), People for Peace and Justice, Veterans for Peace, MEChA, Student Farmworker Alliance, Pax Christi, Holy Spirit Peace and Justice Committee, Mennonite Central Committee, UTPA Environmental Awareness Club, Foro Socialista del Valle.

As you will see from the attached press release…this coalition has scheduled a vigil at the largest and ugliest concentration camp on the planet…in Raymondville (see attached pic).

The date of the Raymondville Vigil II coincides with the Amnesty International sponsored Hutto Vigil X. The vigil would be held on Sunday, June 24th…the day after the Hutto Vigil X. It too is scheduled at the end of the week of the June 20th International Day of the Refugee.

The Raymondville is a concentration camp of 10 vinyl tents, with 200 refugees each. The 2000 immigrants are men and women from some 50 different countries…no one who has been charged with a crime. It is there that spoiled milk is served, raw sausage is served with white bread, sewer lines back up with maggots crawling out…and no medical help is available.

It is the intent of many from the Valley Coalition to attend the Hutto Vigil X…in solidarity with freeing the innocent children. It is the intent many of us from the Hutto Vigil X to attend and…in solidarity…support the Raymondville Vigil II. Some of us will make a weekend of it….in honor of the international refugee…and show that we feel that imprisoning innocent children, women and people from around the world is immoral and is a human rights violation on an scale that is shocking internationally.

Please disseminate this notice to all the groups and coalitions within Freedom Ambassadors and allied organizations like LUPE and CAFHTA. Let’s make June 23rd and June 24th two meaningful and historical days…in total solidarity with the international refugees who are victims of tyranny right her in our country.

Lado al lado. Side be side…

Jay

********************

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Vicky Lorraine (956)-605-6036

For Immediate Release: May 31, 2007

Coalition of community groups calls press conference to address the detention of undocumented immigrants in Raymondville

McAllen, Texas

Time: 12:15pm

Date: Monday, June 4, 2007

Location: Outside The Monitor’s office

(1400 E Nolana Ave
McAllen, TX 78504)

Who: La Uni*n Del Pueblo Entero(LUPE), People for Peace and Justice, Veterans for Peace, MEChA, Student Farmworker Alliance, Pax Christi, Holy Spirit Peace and Justice Committee, Mennonite Central Committee, UTPA Environmental Awareness Club, Foro Socialista del Valle.

What: Press Conference

Why: To announce an upcoming protest/vigil in solidarity with other community groups across the state of Texas, in conjunction with ‘International Refugees Day’. To protest the unethical incarceration of thousands of undocumented immigrants (including children) in the private, for-profit, prisons in Raymondville(“Tent City”) and elsewhere in Texas.

By Greg Moses

CounterPunch

If last year it looked to you like the Minutemen were a too convenient crisis, then your paranoia has been rewarded. Next week, the neocon border begins.
Talk about the Eyes of Texas. While the Governor feeds reporters stories about how he’s going to let every citizen patrol the border from their laptops, his staff is printing final drafts of a memo that will deploy National Guard, not actually to enforce immigration law, says everyone from Alberto Gonzales on up (and down), but to help with construction, transportation, and translation.

Construction, transportation, and bilingualism, let’s see. The words alone could apply to repairing schools and getting kids to summer language classes, but no, that end of the issue can’t be touched by the Governor’s pen. Instead, the border is going to get a wall. Migrant workers are going to be turned into criminals who will need transportation to jail, apparently with someone in the vicinity who can explica the whole thing in Spanish.

Meanwhile, Halliburton will be standing by to build camps as needed. Voice of America reports that a new detention program for immigrants in the Del Rio sector seems to be working well enough to apply elsewhere: “the secret to the program’s success is the application of existing law and the use of penalties spelled out in the statutes.” Instead of sending folks back to Mexico, they get six months and a criminal record. Border crossings in the Del Rio sector are down 50 to 70 percent.

Activists stretched to the limit by immigration policy in Washington and military policy in Iran seem to be standing this one out, even as the infrastructure of empire comes home to roost. The difference between the Minutemen last year and the giant immigrant marches this year is that the Minutemen are still on the side of history in the making, if not the promise of history to come.

Preliminary planning for the border operation has involved chiefs of the five border sectors in Texas, including Laredo, El Paso, and Marfa, says Chief Moncada of the Guard public affairs office in Austin. A spokesperson for the Governor’s office says the operation is in “final stages of planning” and that the memorandum of agreement “has been drafted and is being finalized for signatures”.

“We hope to get personnel to the border as quickly as possible,” said Rachael Novier from the Governor’s press office. Texas has 21,000 troops in the Army and Air National Guard, says Chief Moncada. Currently 3,600 are deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Sinai. Two thousand of the Texas guard assisted relief efforts following hurricane Katrina, and 1,500 were deployed for hurrican Rita, said Moncada. During the wildfires of December 2005, 6 aircraft were deployed. Moncada says there is “some discussion” about a need for guard aircraft at the border.

As for that pipe dream about schools: education remains the single largest challenge facing a “comprehensive” border solution. In Ingles, however, “comprehensive” doesn’t mean “liberty and justice for all.” What “comprehensive” means is that all five pistons of Empire have to be firing at the same time. Stay tuned for photo ops of legitimation, coming at you live from the Rio Grande bordercam.

By Greg Moses

The Texas National Guard and the Governor’s Office have been working up preliminary plans for deployment of troops to the Mexico border, and both offices are expecting the Governor to sign a Memorandum of Agreement in the very near future that would put the troop deployment into action. The preliminary planning has involved five chiefs of the border sectors, including Laredo, El Paso, and Marfa. And their preliminary plans call for deployment of expertise in “linguistics, engineering, and transportation” says Chief Moncada of the Guard public affairs office in Austin.

A spokesperson for the Governor’s office says the operation is in “final stages of planning” and that the memorandum of agreement “has been drafted and is being finalized for signatures”.

“We hope to get personnel to the border as quickly as possible,” said Rachael Novier from the Governor’s press office.

Texas has 21,000 troops in the Army and Air National Guard, says Chief Moncada. Currently 3,600 are deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Sinai.

Two thousand of the Texas guard assisted relief efforts following hurricane Katrina, and 1,500 were deployed for hurrican Rita, said Moncada.

During the wildfires of December 2005, 6 aircraft were deployed. Moncada says there is “some discussion” about a need for guard aircraft at the border.

Note: A quick check with local activists indicated that they were surprised to learn that the deployment was being authorized before Congress completes its work on major immigration legislation.
Border Patrol Sector Map