STOPPING THE BORDER WALL

The No Border Wall Coalition of Laredo was the pivotal force in stopping the construction of over 250 miles of border wall along the Rio Grande River in South Texas. In 2019, The Trump administration, in a rush to build his border wall project to feed his base, announced a “National Emergency Declaration” on the border and then allocated 4 contracts for construction totaling $1.05 Billion dollars for the Laredo sector. Using the REAL ID act, the administration tossed aside federal laws, and enlisted the full force of the Department of Justice, The Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol, The Department of Defense, and The Army Corp of Engineers, in an all out effort to take lands away from municipalities, counties, local businesses, and private homeowners. Eminent domain process was launched against the city of Laredo and hundreds of local landowners. Heavy equipment and hundreds of tons materials were already being delivered to the area, ready to begin building at any minute.

If constructed, the border wall would have carved a path of destruction through the city of Laredo, displacing residential communities, destroying public spaces, de-stabilizing ecosystems, and stealing sacred lands. At a cost of over $20-40 million per mile, the project called for more than just a “fence” but a a 3-story-tall prison-style wall (more than twice the height of the Berlin Wall) with a cleared-out enforcement zone as wide as a football field, filled with towers and floodlights, and law enforcement-only roads. It would have turned locally-owned lands into a federally-owned militarized zone, and separated the city of Laredo from the source of all life in the region – the river – which it had existed alongside for 256 years.

Thankfully, a coalition of local residents, landowners, artists, students, teachers, lawyers, veterans, and faith leaders formed the No Border Wall Coalition in Laredo. Using a combination of legal, political and creative tactics, they fought the most powerful federal agencies to a standstill. After more than a year of holding them off, they crossed the finish line, and a new administration answered their primary demand: a Day 1 Executive Order to stop border wall construction.

Their fight is not well known, but it is a test case of how a small group of committed, organized people can defeat the most powerful of opponents through the use of creative, outside-the-box strategies to impact the political system.

In February of 2020, we were living in Laredo, Texas, and recieved word that the home of my family by marriage was directly in the path of the wall, and along with hundreds of others, was being directly targeted by the administration. This was land that my in-laws had lived on for generations - peacefully and without incident - that would have been destroyed, possibly forever. By sheer coincidence, my wife and I had moved there several months prior, and became a central part of the coalitions efforts. Working with the Rio Grande Study Center, the primary Environmental Justice organization in the area, we helped to craft the coalition’s political and legal strategies, and organized a number of large scale creative actions that turned the tide.

The fight is not over. The work continues. We remain in solidarity with those in other places along the border who continue to fight the wall, and undo the damage that has been done.

#NoBorderWall #CancelTheContracts #HealTheHarm #NotAnotherFoot

For more information:

Laredo - https://noborderwallcoalition.com/

Border wide - https://www.notanotherfoot.org/