Bringing the Border to the Bay - San Francisco film screenings in September

Three Bay area events will highlight the human and environmental costs of border militarization.

Free film screenings will occur on September 19^th, 21^st, and 22^nd sponsored by the Sierra Club Borderlands Team and the Marin Task Force on the Americas.  Afterwards there will be a Q&A with people who live along the U.S.-Mexico border, and who know the situation first-hand.

Our immigration system is broken.  Thousands languish in immigrant detention centers, including private prisons that warehouse detainees to cut costs and increase profits.  Border enforcement inflicts tremendous harm upon border communities and the environment, as border walls tear through cities and wildlife refuges alike. 

It is important to understand the problem if we want to find solutions.

“Right now Congress is hammering out immigration legislation.  If they do it right, it could benefit millions of people.  But if Congress sticks to the “enforcement first” model, with more border walls and for-profit detention centers, they will squander the promise of immigration reform,” says Dan Millis of Sierra Club Borderlands.  “There should be a pathway to citizenship without hundreds of miles of new border walls or the waiving of environmental laws.”

Everyone is invited to come see these films on the impacts of current U.S. border policy on immigrants, border communities, human rights, and the environment:

Immigrants For Sale (2013, 33 min.) is a ground-breaking on-line documentary series that goes inside the private immigrant-detention industry through the lens of those most impacted and the players behind the trade, examining the multi-billion dollar profits that fuel it all.

Wild Versus Wall (2010, 20 min.) covers the ecological effects of the 651 miles of border wall already constructed along the U.S. boundary with Mexico. The Department of Homeland Security waived 37 federal environmental-protection and other laws along our borderlands, resulting in a brutalized landscape and a compromised legal system.

The Fence (2010, 30 min.) award-winning filmmaker Rory Kennedy’s HBO documentary includes candid interviews with Border Patrol agents, ranchers, environmentalists, and voices from both sides of the border-security debate. Kennedy uses humor to highlight contradictions and politically driven misinformation, as well as the ineffectiveness and costliness of the controversial border barrier.

“It is critical that people in the Bay area see for themselves the impacts of our current immigration policies, so that they can push members of Congress to correct the situation instead of making it worse,” says Millis.

Times and locations:

Thursday, September 19, 6:30 pm, Eric Quezada Center for Culture and Politics, 518 Valencia Street, San Francisco.  Co-sponsored by the Eric Quezada Center and the Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition.

Saturday, September 21, 6:30 pm, First United Methodist Church, 9 Ross Valley Drive at Fourth Street, San Rafael.  Co-sponsored by the Marin Peace and Justice Coalition.

Sunday, September 22, 4:30 pm, Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar Street (at Bonita), Connie Barber Room, second floor (sorry, no wheelchair access).  Co-sponsored by the Social Justice Committee of the Berkeley Fellowship.

April 25 "Fences and Floods: New Border Walls in the Rio Grande" at the University of Texas Pan American

Scott Nicol, Sierra Club Borderlands Team chair and LRGV Sierra Club Conservation co-chair, will be speaking at the University of Texas Pan American on April 25 about the flood risks and environmental damage that will come with new border walls slated for the Rio Grande floodplain. Through Freedom of Infomation Act requests Scott has uncovered documents showing that Customs and Border Protection plans to condemn private lands and take parts of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge to build these walls. For years the US section of the International Boundary and Water Commission rejected these walls as posing too great a flood hazard to communities on both sides of the river, but a year ago they caved in to pressure from CBP and approved walls in the floodplain.

At 6pm on April 25 the Sierra Club will screen the 20 minute film Wild vs. Wall, followed by a discussion of the hazards posed by these new walls. The event will occur at the UT Pan American Health Auditorium (HSHW 1.404), and is free and open to the public. You can see a campus map here.

Sierra Club Borderlands event in Utah October 12

Sierra Club hosts a discussion of Borderlands Accountability
October 12, 2012
6:30 - 8:00 pm
Weber State University
Shepherd Union Building, room SU 312
Ogden, Utah

 

An extreme assault on America’s public lands and environmental laws recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The misnamed “National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act,” (HR 1505) will waives 16 environmental laws on federal land along the entire U.S. – Mexico border and the entire U.S. – Canada border.  The lawless zone would  extend 100 miles into the United States from the borders for any activity of the Border Patrol.  National Parks from Glacier to Olympic to Big Bend, along with wildlife refuges, wilderness areas, and national forests could see new walls and roads, towers and forward operating bases, with no concern for the environmental impact.

 

Utah Representative Rob Bishop, author of the bill, has a long history of attacking environmental laws and federal lands. 

 

The Sierra Club's Borderlands Team and the Utah Chapter will present a Borderlands Accountability event at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah to discuss the impacts that border enforcement measures such as border walls have already had, and the tremendous damage that HR 1505 could inflict.  Coincidentally, Ogden is in the heart of Representative Bishop's congressional district.

The Department of Homeland Security has not requested either the waivers or carte blanche on protected lands.  The “National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act” has nothing to do with security.  It is simply an assault on environmental laws and federal lands, using national security as a cover. 

For campus directions go here.

U.S. IBWC meeting to defend their approval of dangerous border walls in the Rio Grande floodplain

In response to mounting criticism, the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) has agreed to host a public meeting to discuss their decision to approve the construction of border walls in the Rio Grande floodplain.

The meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 29, from 6:00-8:00pm in Rio Grande City at the Holiday Inn Express located at 5274 East Highway 83.

Rio Grande City, along with Roma and Los Ebanos, will see miles of border wall built in the floodplain adjacent to homes, farms, and businesses.  These new walls will also repeatedly slice through the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

Since 2007 both the U.S. and Mexican sections of the International Boundary and Water Commission have rejected the construction of walls in the Rio Grande floodplain due to concern that during a flood event they would act as dams.  In the United States water could be trapped in communities, unable to drain into the river.  Flood water could also be deflected into Mexico, worsening flooding there, and potentially pushing the river into a new channel, which would change the location of the international border.

IBWC demanded that walls built in other parts of south Texas either be placed north of the levees or inserted into them, so that they would not impact flooding.  Roma, Rio Grande City, and Los Ebanos are not protected by levees, so walls have not been built there.

In February of this year the U.S. section of IBWC caved in to years of pressure from Customs and Border Protection and reversed their rejection of these walls.  Mexico continues to reject these walls.  If the U.S. acts unilaterally it will be in violation of the treaty that established the border.

U.S. IBWC claims that a flood model commissioned by Customs and Border Protection in July 2011 shows that if the Rio Grande were to engulf border walls after a hurricane, debris lodged in the walls would only block 10-25% of the water.  That model contains no explanation of where this number came from.  By starting with the assumption that walls will not block water, the result of the computer model is essentially predetermined.

In Arizona Customs and Border Protection have constructed nearly identical border walls – 6-inch wide posts with 4-inch gaps between them – across a number of washes.  In places these walls have trapped debris to a depth of nearly six feet.  Walls then act as dams, diverting water into nearby homes and businesses or causing severe erosion.  U.S. IBWC should explain how it is that walls of the same design trap debris and act as dams in the real world, but allow water to pass harmlessly though in the computer model that they are relying upon.

These walls have the potential to do serious damage to communities and refuges near Roma, Rio Grande City, and Los Ebanos.  The Sierra Club Borderlands Team and No Border Wall urge RGV residents to attend this public meeting and ask the U.S. IBWC tough questions.  These decisions are being made in Washington DC for political reasons, but it is our homes, and possibly even our lives, that are at stake.

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For more information about these border walls, please read the recent Texas Observer piece:

http://www.texasobserver.org/oped/new-border-walls-designed-to-flood-texas-towns

Border Wall Film Festival in Austin August 18

Austin Border Film Festival
Violet Crown Cinema * 434 W 2nd Street, Austin, TX
Thursday, August 18th, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Join the Sierra Club's Borderlands Team Thursday, August 18th for a free screening of 3 short documentaries that explore the issues and controversies surrounding the recently constructed U.S./México border wall

-Featuring Three Documentary Films and a short discussion to follow-

• Fencing the Border and its Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s gives an inside perspective on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s concerns about the wall's possible effects on wildlife and protected refuges in south Texas – 7 minutes.

• Wild vs. Wall, Sierra Club’s produced by Tucson filmmaker Steev Hise, is an overview of the environmental effects of current border policies, including insightful interviews and impressive footage demonstrating the long-term ecological effects of border infrastructure – 20 minutes.

• The Fence, Award-winning filmmaker Rory Kennedy’s HBO documentary features candid interviews with Border Patrol agents, ranchers, environmentalists and voices from both sides of the border security debate. Kennedy uses humor to highlight contradictions and politically-driven misinformation, as well as the ineffectiveness and costliness of the controversial border barrier – 30 minutes.

Admission is FREE
Donations to the Sierra Club Borderlands Protection Campaign gladly accepted at the door.

This film festival is dedicated to the memory of long time borderista Mary Grisco