I’ve been working the past five years to help preserve the borderlands as the same -- if not better -- place I fell in love with three years ago when I took my first trip to New Mexico. Even a girl from Chicago like me can appreciate the uniqueness of a place like the American Southwest. And now I know that more border wall could tip the scales and forever change these places that so eloquently represent a melting pot of people and wildlife.
Each time I see firsthand wall construction and replacement happening in Santa Teresa, I am frightened. I’m met with bulldozers, trash, and the building of an eyesore, fence-like structure -- the very concrete beginnings of Donald Trump’s border wall. And last week, when my coworkers from Southwest Environmental Center and I went to scope out construction of replacement wall down there, we were approached by a masked man carrying an AR-15.
That is not the kind of environment that New Mexicans want our children and future generations to grow up in. Saying Southwest lands are special is an understatement. They are cultural, ecological, and historical havens in their own right. Wildlife like the Mexican gray wolf depends on international interconnectivity with our Mexican neighbors as well as corridors to roam and increase their range. The same applies to the jaguar and ocelot -- critically endangered species living in our region who would suffer in the face of a border wall. Even worse, the people -- our neighbors and own communities -- would be the ones paying the highest price for this wall.
The way Trump and his supporters paint the borderlands is incorrect, offensive, and could have irreversible effects on the spaces so many people and creatures depend on. We’ve seen the damage of border walls before Trump, but his motivation to expand it in such a big way will prove detrimental. What started as racist and inflammatory sound bites of an “America first” campaign has somehow convinced Congress to allot more than a billion dollars of taxpayer money to this dangerous reality. We must hold leadership -- both Right and Left -- accountable for the damage they’re inflicting on people and places in the borderland states.
The more time I spend studying this issue, the more I realize just how much border residents are united in opposition to the militarization of our border. Yet over the past two decades, the United States has militarized the southern border region with little regard to its negative impact on our communities, wildlife, and environment. With increased flooding and damage caused from walls that already exist, Americans and Mexicans are still paying the costs of this damage -- some that can never be truly repaired nor forgotten. It’s clear we are standing in the breach of this blatant disregard and disrespect for human life and sacred lands. The barriers that separate us physically and metaphorically warrant the need for all communities to come together in resistance to this destructive and divisive border wall.
Our community must defend our people and places as Trump forces his obscene border wall on southern New Mexico. We encourage our community and visitors to join us this weekend, resisting further militarization of our communities, and reclaiming space for our people and wildlife.
If you’re near Santa Teresa, join us for the “All Against the Wall” protest on June 2 from 5-8 pm to show your support for border communities and wildlife! The Southwest Environmental Center, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Comunidades en Acción y de Fé, ACLU Border Rights Center, ACLU of New Mexico, and other organizations and individuals invite you to join us in opposition to construction of border walls in the places and on the communities we know and love. If you want to support the cause but can’t make the event, tweet #AllAgainstTheWall and #NoBorderWall in solidarity!