This is a community wide campaign against the border wall that was called for by Derechos Humanos in 2003.  Community organizations and individuals are invited to meet and strategize against the actual, physical border wall as well as the U.S. border policies that are adversely affecting vital members of our community.  The Coalition is made up of community members and organizations that wish to unite the human rights, environmental, and Indigenous advocates and communities on this vital issue.  The Coalition works to evoke community involvement and response to government plans to further militarize and extend the walls along the U.S.-México border.  This involves writing letters during public review periods for Environmental Assessments and Impact Statements, organizing educational events, and working to bring these issues to the community at large.

A broad-based coalition of community organizations and individuals met in Tucson early Saturday morning, 5/31/03, at a “teach-in” to kick off a campaign to “Bring Down the Wall” on the border of Mexico. This work group of Environmentalists, Human Rights Activists, and Indigenous is determined to do no less than to take down the wall between Mexico and North America and expose the lies perpetuated by the U.S. Border Patrol and the hypocrisy of DHS Policy in the United States where the struggling economy depends upon poorly-paid migrant labor.

 

U.S. Policy and Border Patrol and DHS actions have resulted in the deaths of an estimated 4,000 migrants due to environmental exposure since 1996. Estimates have it that people are dying in the desert around Tucson at a rate of approximately one every other day, with summer numbers even higher. This area has become a vast killing field for migrants. Last year, at least 205 bodies were recovered in Arizona alone and who knows how many more whose bodies have not been found in this remote vast oven where the desert floor reaches temperatures of 175 degrees. It is impossible to know. It is a horrific death.

 

The Border Patrol knows from past experience no wall or fence will stop the migration of people desperate for work, yet these failed policies are continually used to justify their actions. Sealing off areas has never diminished, let alone stop, the flow North but only funnels traffic to even harsher terrain causing yet more deaths. Incredibly, plans were developed in 2002 to expand the existing 15’ solid metal wall to physically seal off ¾ of the state of Arizona from Mexico, further forcing migrant crossers into the most inhospitable, mountainous, and dangerous terrain of the Sonoran Desert in the western quarter of Arizona and through vast isolated stretches of uninhabited Chihuahuan desert at New Mexico where the fence would end. The Border Patrol’s plan would plunder the desert with over 255 more miles of solid 15’ high wall, 880 more miles of border roads, 145 remote surveillance cameras, and over 410 stadium style lights and portable lights with generators. Although this initial Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was defeated by Bring Down the Walls community efforts, we have seen the piecemeal implementation of it in the last three years.

 

The 2002 EIS proposal did not designate what type of fencing/wall will be used, the exact location, or the cost. Estimates at the low end are $175,000/mile ($45 million) to the high end at $1million/mile ($255 million). At an average estimated cost of $150,000 each, lighting would come to $22 million. This did not take into account labor for installation and there are no estimated figures for the remote cameras, helicopters, vehicles, maintenance, agents, or the road construction that will run through seven environmentally sensitive areas including the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge at a cost not easily assessed in terms of dollars. The 14 miles of double fence with cameras, lights, and roads between San Diego and Tijuana came to $3million/mile, as per figures by Congressman Duncan Hunter who proudly supports such measures in California. His wall did not slow migration; it only funneled it to Arizona and the deaths soared. There is no reason to believe more of the same will bring different results, yet politicians continue to consider implementation of militarization strategies on the U.S.-México border.

 

The U.S. Border Patrol is required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to submit a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). Once approved by the Dept. of Interior, it will become much more difficult to monitor construction of border fencing in Arizona, since thereafter 10 Border Patrol Stations within Tucson and Yuma Sectors will submit separate proposals at different times. The PEIS is the only opportunity to view this project as it is conceived for the entire state.

 

Prior Environmental Impact Statement and Envrionmental Assessments submitted have been sorely lacking in details, often contain no assessment of economic impacts on communities, no cost estimates, no evaluation of the impact on migrant deaths, and do not specify exact locations or type of construction making it impossible for anyone to accurately assess their impacts. These plans often do not reflect the variety of wildlife that would be impacted by fence construction. Critical species such as the Jaguar are missing, while it has been stated that there will be no negative impact upon the California Blue Whale and many other species who also do not live in Arizona. This ludicrous evaluation is an insult to any intelligent citizen living in Arizona.

 

The walls MUST come down!