No Border Wall

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.. Photos by: Scott Nicol/Jay Johnson Castro

NO BORDER WALL is a grassroots coalition of groups and individuals united in our belief that a border wall will not stop illegal immigration or smuggling and will not make the United States any safer. A border wall tells the world that we are a fearful nation, not a strong and confident nation, and that we are unable to address difficult issues in an intelligent and meaningful way. It will do irreparable harm to our borderlands and our country as a whole. Many of us live on the border, and we know what will be lost if a wall tears through our communities, farms, and natural areas. We urge our elected representatives to reject the border wall and repeal the Secure Fence Act and the Real ID Act.

Two weeks before the 2006 midterm elections, President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act into law. It states that “the Secretary of Homeland Security shall provide for at least 2 layers of reinforced fencing, the installation of additional physical barriers, roads, lighting, cameras, and sensors,” along up to 850 miles of the United States’ southern border. Walls have already been built in parts of California and Arizona. According to a report commissioned by Congress, the border walls have had no impact on the number of immigrants who are in the United States illegally. The walls have already done tremendous damage, and the construction of hundreds more miles will magnify that damage. NO BORDER WALL opposes the construction of the walls called for by the Secure Fence Act, and urges Congress to repeal it immediately and halt construction.

A number of misconceptions surround the Secure Fence Act, the first of which is the use of the term “fence.” Chosen to evoke images of the picket fence that separates suburban neighbors, the barriers that have been built along the southern border more closely resemble the Berlin Wall. In California and Arizona rusted steel plates have been driven into the earth to create walls that are 15 feet tall. South of San Diego two more layers were added, the result being parallel concrete and steel walls with a graded road between them and 50 feet on either side cleared of all vegetation. Estimates of the construction costs for the full 850 miles of border wall called for in the Secure Fence Act range from $4 billion to $46.

For more information visit No Texas Border Wall.

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