Courtney Bourgoin, courtney.bourgoin@sierraclub.org
McAllen, Texas— Today, less than a week after his supporters stormed the Capitol in a failed coup, Donald Trump will make a stop in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley to visit the border wall.
In the last four years, the Trump administration has rushed to build hundreds of miles of new and replacement wall using unlawful funding mechanisms, tearing through sacred Indigenous sites and land, and surrounded by cases of corruption. The administration has issued 27 waivers of laws that protect the environment, health, and safety of people in the borderlands to expedite construction. President-elect Joe Biden has stated his administration will stop the project and not build another foot of wall.
In response, Dan Millis, Borderlands Program Manager at the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter, released the following statement:
“The border wall has been an unjust, destructive, and corrupt disaster. In his last days as president, Trump's rush to build as much wall as possible is ravaging the borderlands— destroying Indigneous sacred sites, habitat and land, and severely harming communities. This unchecked destruction cannot continue.
“President-elect Biden must urgently restore protections and safeguards stripped from communities and places along the border, and rescind Trump’s corrupt construction contracts. Though much of the damage will never be undone, the billions of dollars wasted on the wall should be redirected to remediation for communities, habitat, and sacred sites devastated by Trump’s cruel border agenda.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, 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.