Laredo is no place to construct a wall
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol planners were in Laredo this week to begin assessing where to place a wall within our South Texas community.
At a State of the Border address on Feb. 1, Felix Chavez, interim chief for the U.S. Border Patrol Laredo sector, presented information to justify the 171 river miles of wall construction being requested for Webb and Zapata counties. CBP believes that a permanent, impermeable barrier is necessary to meet its goal of “operational control.”
To our dismay, we learned that of those 171 river miles, CBP wants the heart of Laredo’s urban center for the wall.
This is a position with which we fiercely disagree.
This area includes downtown, the Laredo College campus, densely populated middle- and low-income residential areas, and prime parks, trails and habitat for recreation, kayaking, and birding, which have made Laredo and the lower Rio Grande Valley a major destination for eco-tourists.
Historical data on illegal apprehensions clearly indicate that there is no urgent, or even impending, border crisis. The data show that apprehensions for Laredo and the entire Southwest border , in 2017, were at an all-time low similar to the early 1970s. The 2018 statistics reached one-fourth of their peak in 2000. As for illegal drug seizures, Border Patrol data show that more than 90 percent occur at the ports of entry.
Meanwhile, our government has waived every regulation for wall construction on our biodiverse vega (river floodplain), dismantling protections that directly impact the security of Laredo’s only source of drinking water, which we share with 6 million people up and down the Rio Grande. In waiving the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act, Solid Waste Disposal Act and at least 20 other environmental laws, the Trump administration threatens the health and safety of millions of Americans and Mexicans who live along the banks of this river.
Today’s border situation is complicated by the changing demographics of immigration. In the past, migrants were overwhelmingly single males from Mexico. Today, 78 percent are from countries other than Mexico, and family units and unaccompanied minors now make up 60 percent of illegal apprehensions.
Contributing factors include: violence and poverty in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador propelling migrants northward to legally seek asylum; an overloaded court system; and detention policies that complicate crossings at legal points of entry, creating incentives to cross between the ports.
This is a dramatic shift in migration patterns, which Border Patrol facilities aren’t designed to handle.
We therefore urge our congressional leaders to budget zero dollars toward the wall so that security dollars are better spent on more urgent and pressing measures such as increasing staff and upgrading technology at our ports of entry.
The consequences of constructing a wall in Laredo’s urban center would devastate our landscape, ecology, cultural heritage and quality of life.
Flooding could significantly increase in our lower-lying sister city, creating a wreckage whose risk will not even be addressed because of the dismissal of construction regulations. Hundreds of species of wildlife rely on river access for their survival. Relocating millions of dollars’ worth of city infrastructure located near the river’s edge illustrates real world costs of implementation.
To imperil this natural landmark and American Heritage River — which is the sole source of drinking water for millions of people — with an unjustifiable wall for political posturing is an outrage.
Laredo is a historic community in the South Texas borderlands. Its lifeblood, the Rio Grande, has always been its No. 1 asset since our community’s founding 264 years ago in 1755. We cannot support this wall, especially when the Border Patrol’s own data contradict its conception, and the historically low apprehension rates clearly show there is no border crisis.