EMERGENCY EMAIL CAMPAIGN CIW & SFA ALLIES

your quick email will mean a lot to us down here fighting this monster.

arriba l@s de abajo y bajo el pinche muro,
jm

--John-Michael Torres
Steering Committee, Student Farmworker Alliance
956-534-0267
Mission, TX


To Everyone Opposed to the Border Wall,

The Brownsville City Commission may make a border wall deal with the Department of Homeland Security tomorrow. This deal has immediate and long-term implications for border wall opposition nationwide. If the the City of Brownsville enters into a deal with DHS, all hope for a last minute halt to border wall construction from the Obama administration may be lost. In addition, a change in Brownsville's position could undermine all litigation related to the border wall, including El Paso's appeal to the Supreme Court. Brownsville's failure to fight something that is so clearly an injustice and an imposition by the federal goverment may eventually lead to increased militarization of our borders over the long haul.

The deal itself is a bad one. The commissioners are touting the fact that DHS will build "temporary fencing" on Brownsville property, but the contract stipulates that before such temporary fencing comes down, Brownsville will have to pay the entire cost of constructing a new wall, this time a permanent concrete border wall built into the flood-control levee. These levee-border walls have cost neighboring Hidalgo County $10-12 million per mile. Since these walls become an inextricable part of the flood-control levee system, they will never be removed, even if we are one day successful in implementing a saner border policy. However U.S. immigration and border security policy changes over the coming decades, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be living with walls because of the levee-border wall design.

No Border Wall urges everyone, regardless of where you live, to make your voices heard and let Brownsville City Commissioners know that you too are a stakeholder. If you live in the Rio Grande Valley, please make a concerted effort to attend the City Commission Public Hearing this Thursday night, February 12 at 5:30 pm at the City Commissioners' Court on the 2nd floor of the City Hall/Federal Building on the corner of 10th and Elizabeth Streets in Brownsville. Plan to arrive 15 minutes early if possible to sign up for a public comment.

If you live elsewhere or are unable to attend the public hearing, please copy and paste the following email addresses and send an email to the Brownsville mayor and city commissioners, letting them know that it's not only the future of Brownsville that's at stake, but the future of our borderlands and our nation as a whole. You might tell them of your community's experience dealing with DHS and border wall construction or of your group's ongoing efforts to stop wall construction.

The commissioners' emails are:
atkinson@cob.us; carlos@cob.us; leoneltgarza@cob.us; ricardo@cob.us; camarillo@cob.us; charlie@cob.us; aptroiani@cob.us; mayorahumada@cob.us

Their names are:
Charlie Atkinson, Carlos Cisneros, Leonel Garza, Ricardo Longoria, Edward Camarillo, Anthony Troiani, and Mayor Pat Ahumada Phone and fax contact information is available at http://www.cob.us/government/commission.asp

Below are some links to related stories.

Thank you for your immediate action on this matter,

Stefanie Herweck
No Border Wall