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The mission of the Sierra Club’s Borderlands Team is to mobilize communities along the U.S.-Mexico border to protect and restore border wildlands and wildlife for future generations by demanding that decision-makers enforce key environmental laws—an environmental justice issue for border communities—and respect human rights.
Border walls, patrol roads, forward operating bases, and other enforcement infrastructure have had a devastating impact on ecosystems along the U.S. southern border. Because the REAL ID Act of 2005 gave the Secretary of Homeland Security the unprecedented power to waive laws that protect the environment.
Endangered species habitat has been fragmented, imperiling the recovery of animals including the ocelot, jaguar, and Sonoran pronghorn; walls that cross natural drainages have acted as dams, inflicting flood damage in communities and natural areas in Arizona and Sonora; roads and walls have been carved into steep mountainsides and have involved filling in ravines and canyons. Walls and roads have been punched through federal Wilderness Areas and Wildlife Refuges, National Monuments and National Forests, Native American Nations and private ranches. Their only documented impact on border crossings has been to reroute, or “funnel,” migrants into remote and dangerous areas, where thousands have perished over the past decade.
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Our Vision:
Sierra Club Borderlands seeks to ensure safe and healthy border communities and ecosystems and habitat resiliency through:
- Advocacy for the strongest environmental and public health standards for borderlands areas.
- We expose and publicize the shirking and outright waiving of law in the borderlands.
- Pursuit of border solutions that address the root causes of border problems.
- We seek community-based border solutions with a broad array of stakeholders. We support sustainable development programs abroad and comprehensive immigration reform with a just and meaningful path to citizenship at home.
- Protection of natural, cultural, and community resources.
- We engage key decision makers to promote wildlife linkages, to limit developments and actions that would harm cultural sites, wildlife, and/or communities.
- Support for scientific approaches to understanding current and future border impacts.
- We promote the establishment and funding of robust, border-wide monitoring and mitigation programs to ensure that problems are identified and addressed.
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June is Pride Month, and The Borderlands program is proud to support and be in solidarity with our LGBTQIA+ community. This month is a celebration of the resilience of the LGBTQIA+ community, and the progress they’ve made in securing their right to love who they love without discrimination. But during this year’s Pride Month, we must also recognize that we are in a moment of hateful backlash against LGBTQIA+ people and the vision of joy, love, and transformative possibility they offer the world.
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2022 is becoming another alarming year for anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation. State legislators across the country have proposed a record 238 bills that would deny access to gender-affirming health care, prevent discussion of LGBQTIA+ issues in schools, and make it easier to discriminate against queer people under the guise of religious exemptions. Many of these bills specifically target trans youth.
Pride Month is a critical moment to share stories, remember queer history, and be reminded that our work for a livable planet must always be intertwined with building a more inclusive and just future. We can't create that livable planet unless we disrupt and dismantle the systemic inequities -- built on a foundation of white supremacy— that ensure white, cis, straight individuals have more access to systems of power and decision-making.
Learn about the issues that the LGBTQTIA+ community faces at the border
LGBT Asylum Seekers in Danger at the Border
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The Borderlands program commemorates and celebrates Juneteenth
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The Borderlands program commemorates and celebrates Juneteenth, the day when enslaved people in Texas finally learned they were emancipated—a full two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. It marks the end of institutionalized slavery in the United States.
Unfortunately, black communities continue to experience the atrocities of
slavery through the inequities faced on an everyday basis from education, jobs,
health care, criminal justice system, and so much more.
Please take some time to read this article about the US-Mexico border and how Border Patrol agents are evoking dark comparisons to US slavery and the country's historical mistreatment of black people.
Echoes of slavery history
Please take time watch this short video from the Blackish sitcom about Juneteenth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbvuYebatK8
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San Diego Sector Remediation Plan
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Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is seeking input on proposed remediation actions associated with the construction of border barrier in San Diego County, California.
Find the San Diego comments here and scroll to the bottom of the page to find the map with the sections that they intend to remediate.
Feel free to use this template with comments provided by Sierra Club: Sierra Club comments
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Note from Friendship Park
As some of you know, on January 8, 2020, Border Patrol staff, acting outside the chain of command, completely destroyed the U.S. side of the Binational Garden. One week later, interim Chief Douglas Harrison issued a public apology, committing the San Diego Border Patrol to work with community members to restore the garden. Since that apology and commitment, San Diego Border Patrol officials have:
● Disallowed volunteer access to the binational garden (October 2021);
● denied a request for compensation from the fiscal sponsor Via International (April 2022); and
● allowed the U.S. side of the garden to fall into a state of complete neglect.
The new Remediation Plan seeks to “avert further potential environmental damage,” and includes “revegetation of disturbed areas.” No area in San Diego has been more damaged or disturbed by border wall construction related activities than the Binational Friendship Garden of Native Plants.
Therefore, we request that funds allocated through the San Diego Remediation Plan be dedicated to the full restoration of the Binational Garden at Friendship Park and symbolize the collaboration across barriers needed to preserve our shared environment.
Please share a comment to support the full restoration of Friendship Park
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Upcoming Borderlands Volunteer Training
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The Borderlands needs your help, so we have put together an interactive in-person volunteer training in Tucson for everyone that lives nearby and another virtual one for everyone out of town.
These trainings are open to everyone and have as learning objectives to:
- Identify how to engage in Borderlands conversations with the community they live in and feel confident to present information and answer questions.
- Demonstrate how to conduct learning activities with the community to build trusting relationships and meaningful conversations where everyone feels heard.
- Describe the current state of the border issues and develop action plans where the community can get involved.
- Describe and present resources available to the community about Borderlands issues by Sierra Club and other organizations.
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The in-person training is July 30th from 9am to 12pm at the Historic Y conference room in Tucson AZ, lunch will be provided and Borderlands T-shirts.
The virtual training will be August 6th from 9 am to 12 pm.
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Grand Canyon Chapter Equity Trail Map
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We envision a chapter where people who have been historically and perpetually excluded and marginalized from the work of Sierra Club, feel welcome, supported, represented, and hold leadership positions within the chapter. In particular we lift up young people and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in our work.
We know that we can play a pivotal role in supporting effective, collaborative campaigning and movement building as we work towards climate justice. Our work as environmentalists is intrinsically linked to life-long learning and unlearning around systems of oppression.
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If you would like to learn more about the this work please visit Equity trail map website
We would love to hear your feedback or suggestions.
Please feel free to send us an email at: Borderlands program
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Presentation by Kate Scott on the San Pedro River, Pajarita wilderness area, Huachucas, Guadalupe Canyon
Kate will be presenting her ground truthing (witnessing, documenting) of the border details.
June 22nd at 6:30 PM
Hosted by the Sustainable Water Network
Register here
Follow the Madrean Archipelago Wildlife Center :
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Borderlands Monthly Meeting
The Borderlands team hosts a monthly meeting every second Tuesday of the month at 5 pm, if you would like to attend or get the notes and borderlands updates please let us know and write an email to erick.meza@sierraclub.org
Thank you for your support!
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Junio Es El Mes Del Orgullo
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Transboundary Conservation at Big Bend National Park Quick Update
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Plan de remediación del sector de San Diego
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CBP está buscando información sobre las acciones de remediación propuestas asociadas con la construcción de la barrera fronteriza en el condado de San Diego, California.
Encuentre los comentarios de San Diego aquí y desplácese hasta la parte inferior de la página para encontrar el mapa con las secciones que pretenden remediar.
Siéntase libre de usar esta plantilla con comentarios provistos por Sierra Club: Comentarios de Sierra Club
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Nota del parque de la amistad
Como algunos de ustedes saben, el 8 de Enero de 2020, el personal de la Patrulla Fronteriza que actuaba fuera de la cadena de mando destruyó por completo el lado estadounidense del Jardín Binacional. Una semana después, el jefe interino Douglas Harrison emitió una disculpa pública y comprometió a la Patrulla Fronteriza SD a trabajar con miembros de la comunidad para restaurar el jardín. Desde esa disculpa y compromiso, los oficiales de la Patrulla Fronteriza de San Diego han:
● No se permite el acceso de voluntarios al jardín binacional (octubre de 2021)
● Negó una solicitud de compensación de nuestro patrocinador fiscal Via International (abril de 2022);
● Permitió que el lado estadounidense del jardín cayera en un estado de completo abandono.
El nuevo Plan de Remediación busca "evitar más daño ambiental potencial" e incluye "revegetación de áreas perturbadas". Ningún área en San Diego ha sido más dañada o perturbada por las actividades relacionadas con la construcción del muro fronterizo que el Jardín de Plantas Nativas de la Amistad Binacional.
Por lo tanto, solicitamos que los fondos asignados a través del Plan de Remediación de San Diego se dediquen a la restauración completa del Jardín Binacional en el Parque de la Amistad. Muchas de las plantas nativas aún están intactas y los voluntarios están ansiosos por restaurar nuestro jardín y su oportunidad única de crear un acceso equitativo a la naturaleza para nuestra comunidad local y simbolizar la colaboración a través de las barreras necesarias para preservar nuestro entorno compartido.
Comparta un comentario para apoyar la restauración completa del Parque de la Amistad
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Próxima capacitación para voluntarios de Borderlands
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Borderlands necesita su ayuda, organizamos una capacitación voluntaria interactiva en Tucson en persona para todos los que viven cerca y otra virtual para todos los que viven fuera de la ciudad.
Estas capacitaciones están abiertas a todos y tienen como objetivos de aprendizaje:
- Identificar cómo participar en conversaciones de Borderlands con la comunidad en la que viven y sentirse seguros para presentar información y responder preguntas.
- Demostrar cómo realizar actividades de aprendizaje con la comunidad para construir relaciones de confianza y conversaciones significativas donde todos se sientan escuchados.
- Describir el estado actual de los problemas fronterizos y desarrollar planes de acción donde la comunidad pueda involucrarse.
- Describir y presentar recursos disponibles para la comunidad sobre temas de Borderlands por Sierra Club y otras organizaciones.
La capacitación en persona será el 30 de Julio de 9am a 12pm en el salón de conferencias Historic Y en Tucson AZ, se proporcionará almuerzo y camisetas de Borderlands.
El entrenamiento virtual será el 6 de Agosto de 9am a 12pm.
Apuntese aquí
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Mapa de senderos de equidad del Capítulo del Gran Cañón de Sierra Club
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Visualizamos un capítulo donde las personas que han sido histórica y perpetuamente excluidas y marginadas del trabajo de Sierra Club, se sientan bienvenidas, apoyadas, representadas y ocupen posiciones de liderazgo dentro del capítulo. En particular, apoyamos a los jóvenes y a las personas negras, indígenas y de color (BIPOC) en nuestro trabajo.
Nuestro trabajo como ambientalistas está intrínsecamente relacionado con el aprendizaje permanente y el desaprendizaje en torno a los sistemas de opresión.
Si desea obtener más información sobre este trabajo,visite el sitio web del mapa de senderos de equidad
Nos encantaría escuchar sus comentarios o sugerencias.
No dude en enviarnos un correo electrónico a: Programa fronterizo
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Presentación de Kate Scott sobre el Río San Pedro, área silvestre de Pajarita, Huachucas, cañón de Guadalupe
Presentará su verificación de campo (testigo, documentación) de los detalles fronterizos. Capaz de ver cosas que otros no pudieron ver debido a COVID.
22 de Junio a las 6:30pm
Organizado por la Red de Agua Sostenible
Conoce más del Madrean Archipelago Wildlife Center:
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El equipo fronterizo de Sierra Club organiza una reunión mensual cada segundo Martes del mes a las 5 pm tiempo de AZ, si desea asistir u obtener las notas y actualizaciones de borderlands, háganoslo saber y escriba un correo electrónico a erick.meza@sierraclub.org
¡Gracias por tu apoyo!
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