The Fence and Wild v. Wall screening in McAllen, TX

The Fence and Wild vs. Wall

Border Wall Films Showing at Cine el Rey

Cine el Rey * 311 S. 17th Street, McAllen, TX

Tuesday, July 31^st, 7:00 pm

Join us on Tuesday, July 31^st for a free screening of 2 short documentaries that explore the issues and controversies surrounding the recently constructed U.S./México border wall.  This free screening is part of Cine el Rey’s Sustainability Film Series, and is sponsored by the Sierra Club.

Hundreds of border residents have had their land condemned, and the erection of border walls through Wildlife Refuges and Wilderness Areas has already done tremendous damage, especially since the Department of Homeland Security has been able to use the Real ID Act to waive all relevant environmental laws. 

In February the US half of the International Boundary Water Commission approved construction of new border walls in the flood plain at Roma, Rio Grande City, and Los Ebanos.  If they are built, these border walls will channel flood water into these communities, and also deflect flood water into Mexican homes and property on the other side of the Rio Grande. 

The event at Cine el Rey will feature two documentary films, with a short discussion to follow-

·         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.

·         Wild vs. Wall   The Sierra Club film 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 impacts of border walls.

 Admission is FREE

Borderlands event in Austin March 4

Please join with some of Austin's finest bands in supporting the Sierra Club's Borderlands Team on Sunday, March 4, from 4pm - 7pm, at the 29th Street Ballroom (next to Spiderhouse Cafe on the University of Texas campus). Along with live music from Designer Genes and BitterHeaRt Society they will screen the short Sierra Club documentary Wild vs. Wall, which shows the damage dome by border walls in Texas and along the entire U.S.-Mexico border. Admission is free; donations for the Borderlands Team are welcome.

Unchecked by environmental protections, the walls that began in California’s borderlands now extend over 600 miles, inflicting tremendous damage upon many sensitive ecosystems. In Texas the walls that slice through the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge have fragmented habitat that is critical for the survival of endangered ocelots. In Arizona the border walls that cross washes and streams in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument have caused severe erosion and flooding. Border walls built in New Mexico’s Playas Valley block the movement of one of the last wild herds of bison, whose range straddles the U.S. – Mexico border. And wall construction in California's Otay Mountain Wilderness Area has involved dynamiting steep mountainsides, sending hundreds of thousands of tons of rock into the Tijuana River below.

The Sierra Club's Borderlands Team is working to prevent further walls and greater destruction along both borders. It is trying to head off legislation that would call for hundreds of miles of new border walls, or waive environmental and other laws along both the northern and southern borders. And the Team is pushing for the Department of Homeland Security to mitigate some portion of the damage that their actions have already inflicted.

Please come out to the 29th Street Ballroom on March 4, and show your support for local music and for our borderlands.

Directions: http://www.spiderhousecafe.com/contact/spider-house-cafe.html

Draft programmatic environmental impact statement released for the entire northern border - CBP has announced public meetings

Customs and Border Protection has prepared a draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for unspecified enforcement activities along the entire US - Canada border, from Maine to Washington. These could include new or expanded forward operating bases, fencing, roads, towers, and just about anything that they think of over the next decade or so. The PEIS is extremely vague on exactly what might be done and where. It can be viewed here:

http://www.northernborderpeis.com/about-the-peis.html

The public and interested organizations should offer comments, either online or at one of the scheduled public meetings along the northern border. Public meetings will be held from 7-9PM at the following locations:


October 4, 2011
Massena, NY VFW
101 W. Hatfield St.
Massena, NY 13662

October 6, 2011
St. Albans, VT
St. Albans Historical Museum
9 Church Street
St. Albans, VT 05478

October 5, 2011
Augusta, ME
The Senator Inn & Spa
284 Western Ave.
Augusta, ME 04330

October 4, 2011
Caribou, ME
Caribou Inn and Convention Center
19 Main Street
Caribou, ME 04736

October 11, 2011
Rochester, NY
Holiday Inn - Rochester
Airport 911 Brooks Avenue
Rochester, NY 15624

October 12, 2011
Erie, PA
Ambassador Banquet Center
7794 Peach Street
Erie, PA 16509

October 6, 2011
Detroit, MI
Holiday Inn Express
1020 Washington Boulevard
Detroit, MI 48226

October 17, 2011
Washington, DC
Crystal City Marriott at Reagan National Airport
1999 Jefferson Davis Highway
Arlington, VA 22201

October 3, 2011
Duluth, MN Holiday Inn
200 West First Street
Duluth, MN 55802

October 13, 2011
Naples, ID
The Great Northwestern Territories Event Center
336 County Road 8
Naples, ID 83847

October 5, 2011
Bottineau, ND
Twin Oaks Resort and Convention Center
10723 Lake Loop Road
Bottineau, ND 58318

October 11, 2011
Bellingham, WA
Hampton Inn
3958 Bennett Drive
Bellingham, WA

October 6, 2011
Havre, MT
The Town House Inn
627 1st Street West
Havre, MT 59501

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

Presentations on the border wall's impacts in South Texas August 22 & 23

The rugged deserts and mountains of Arizona’s southern border can be a treacherous place. Josseline was fourteen years old when she and her little brother crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, hoping to reunite with their mother in California. Walking for days, Josseline got sick and fell behind her group and the coyote that led them.

Three weeks later, Dan Millis was among the humanitarian aid volunteers that stumbled across Josseline's lifeless body in a remote canyon along the border. Since then, Millis has come to know that the costs of fatally flawed U.S. border policies extend beyond the tragic deaths of border crossers like Josseline. Walls push crossers into more remote desert terrain. Border ecosystems and the federal laws that protect them have also been cast aside by costly, ineffective, environmentally destructive, and inhumane attempts to "secure the border."

The Lower Rio Grande Valley Sierra Club is proud to co-sponsor presentations by Dan Millis in Brownsville on Monday, August 22, and in San Juan on Tuesday, August 23 respectively. Millis will tell how he was ticketed, dragged to court, and convicted of "littering" after leaving drinking water for migrants along border desert trails shortly after he found Josseline. Now working for the Sierra Club in Tucson, Dan will also discuss the environmental impacts of border walls and other enforcement measures. He will share stories of trans-national friendship and offer tips on which border walls are easiest to climb. Most importantly, Millis will speak up for the people and places victimized by border walls and enforcement-only politics and invite you to join in the fight.

Please join us Monday, August 22 at Galeria 409 in Brownsville, TX and Tuesday, August 23 at St. John the Baptist Parish Hall in San Juan, TX. Both presentations begin at 7:00pm. Refreshments will be served.

Monday, August 22 at 7:00pm Galeria 409 in Brownsville, Texas
Directions to Galeria 409, 409 E. 13th St.: From Expressway 77/83 in Brownsville, exit International and go south. Turn right onto Washington. Turn left on E 12th. Turn left on Levee St. Turn left onto E 13th. Galeria 409 is on the left in the middle of the block between Levee and Elizabeth streets. Parking is available at meters on Levee and Elizabeth, and there's a big parking lot on Levee and E 12th.

Tuesday, August 23 at 7:00pm St John the Baptist Parish Hall in San Juan, Texas
Directions to St John the Baptist, 216 W. 1st St.: From Expressway 83, exit Raul Longoria/Nebraska exit in San Juan and turn south on Nebraska. Turn right on 1st St. You will see the tower on the right. The Parish Hall is just past the tower. Parking is on the west and north side of the church complex.

Write your member of Congress - Oppose HR 1505

An assault on America's public lands and environmental laws has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, bearing the ironic name "National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act" (HR 1505).

Over 30 federal protection laws would be waived in a zone that extends 100 miles into the United States from all land borders and coasts. Roughly two-thirds of the U.S. population lives in the area targeted by this waiver. Cities from San Francisco to Boston and national parks from Glacier to Everglades could be put at risk.

And if that weren't enough, HR 1505 prohibits the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture, which oversee our national parks, wilderness areas, and wildlife refuges, from taking any actions to preserve the natural integrity of the lands that they oversee if their actions or advice conflict with the desires of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).





HR 1505 is using national security as a cover to attack environmental laws and protected lands. DHS has not expressed a need for these harmful provisions. In fact, DHS testifies that public land managers are not getting in the way of their operations. Last October, the Government Accountability Office found that "most [Border Patrol] agents reported that land management laws have had no effect on Border Patrol's overall measure of border security."

Visit the Sierra Club page to send an email to your member of Congress, telling them to oppose HR 1505:

https://secure2.convio.net/sierra/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=6239

Sierra Club online action - write your Senator opposing more border walls‏

The Sierra Club has an online action that is now live. Click on the link, fill in your information, and send an email to your Senators telling them to reject any proposals to build more border walls.

o Border action alert update – Sierra Club live now! action.sierraclub.org/demintwall

Nearly 670 mills of fences and walls have already been constructed along our Southwestern International border, separating families, fracturing wildlife corridors, and scarring the region’s unique natural and cultural resources.

Now a number of politicians have called for yet another set of walls along the US / Mexico border, which would continue to come at great expense to local communities, ecosystems, and the American Taxpayer.

Please write your senators and say ‘NO’ to another set of border walls.

For more info. on the strong likelihood that the new Congress will push for more border walls, read the No Border Wall blog:

http://notexasborderwall.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-congress-will-try-to-build-more.html