Courtney Bourgoin, courtney.bourgoin@sierraclub.org (202) 495-3022
Mission, TX-- On Sunday, families in the Rio Grande Valley will gather to celebrate the Rio Grande River, a vital resource and the region’s only source of fresh water for nearly one million residents of Hidalgo County. Access to the river will be eliminated by the upcoming wall border wall construction that will seize private land, cut residents off from the Rio Grande and tear through state parks and tourism spots. Reporters are invited to attend the day’s activities at the National Butterfly Center but also an overnight border immersion campout on the site’s grounds. The event offers a unique chance to see how families and community members are responding to the viral spotlight on their towns in regards to border militarization, detention centers and family separation. In the past two weeks, hundreds of community members and businesses have received letters from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) requesting they allow the agency to scout their land for border wall construction despite the Government Accountability Office’s latest report that shows CBP didn’t consider all the factors of building wall in such places and should reevaluate.
WHAT: A gathering on the banks of the Rio Grande River in recognition of what will be lost to the border wall as construction begins
WHEN: Sunday, August 12th from 9-2 p.m. and optional overnight campout at National Butterfly Center
WHERE: National Butterfly Center
3333 Butterfly Park, Mission, TX 78572
WHO: Rio Grande Valley community members, decision makers and business owners gathering to acknowledge the negative impact of border wall construction, milarization
Visuals: Beginnings of new wall construction, wild scenery- diverse plant and animal life and hundreds of community members gathered in solidarity, campout
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.