Sierra Club, through its Borderlands Project, has opposed erecting even limited stretches of physical barriers between the U.S. and Mexico. Each predicted negative impact of the wall has come to pass: unfair and discriminatory confiscation of private land, disruption of families and communities, decimation of wildlife habitat, flooding, and interruption of vibrant economic relationships along the border.
Even former Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, who shepherded the building of the first major lengths of fence, acknowledged that physical barriers are largely symbolic and not “a cure all.” Yet Executive Order 13767 directing the border wall to extend along the entire U.S./Mexico border was signed on January 25, 2017, and the mean-spirited campaign rhetoric of hate and fear continues despite evidence that the wall would be, according to Republican Texas Congressman Will Hurd, “the most expensive and least effective way of securing the border.”
The cost to construct the wall ranges from $8 billion to $25 billion, but this doesn’t include the negative economic impact the wall would have. Mexico is our second-largest market and third-largest overall trade partner. Daily trade between our countries is estimated at $1.46 billion. Mexico residents account for about $4.5 billion in annual retail sales in Texas counties along the border. SABÉR Research Institute, an economic think tank in San Antonio, estimates Mexican nationals spent $446 million in El Paso County in 2012, one-third of McAllen’s overall retail activity is Mexican nationals according to a senior economist in the El Paso branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
But it’s not only about money, it’s about families divided and torn apart, about ecosystems forever destroyed, species that will disappear and a relationship that will be difficult if not impossible to repair.
I had almost forgotten these words of wisdom from a Texan in response to California’s mean spirited anti-immigrant prop 187.
"If you're a mother or dad, and you're worried about feeding your children, and you can't find work close to home, and you hear of opportunities somewhere else, and you're worth your salt, you're coming. … [I] believe in tough enforcement of the nation's borders… [but] the long-term solution to the illegal immigration issue was to help Mexico's economy through free trade. … It's so important to have leadership that tears down barriers, leadership that offers a future hopeful for everybody, leaders that reject the politics of pitting one group of people against each other.''
Who said it? George W. Bush in 2000.
Cheers,
Reggie James, Director
Lone Star Chapter