Thursday, July 17, 2008 @ 1pm
Office of Congressman Ciro Rodriguez
1950 S.W. Military Drive (at I-35)
San Antonio, TX

Community demands Rep. Rodriguez stop family detention centers and the border wall

A coalition of grassroots community organizations will protest at the office of Congressman Ciro Rodriguez Thursday for not denouncing the Texas border wall and for his sponsorship of the SAVE Act. Communities across Rep. Rodriguez’s district, which includes Southwest San Antonio, Eagle Pass, Big Bend, and Del Rio, are overwhelmingly opposed to the wall, for which survey work has already begun. Earlier this year, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Chertoff waived over 36 federal laws protecting the environment, land-holders, native communities, including their burial and ceremonial grounds, and natural parks, and historic cross-border ways of life in order to begin work on the wall.

Consultation has been virtually non-existent with locals and DHS has overlooked studies that take into account the effects on local levees, such as in the Rio-Grande area, and ecosystems. Rep. Rodriguez has criticized DHS for the lack of consultation but has not denounced the wall for being inhumane, ineffective, and harmful to the economy and border communities. The protestors call on Rep. Rodriguez to use his position as member of the appropriations committee to work against the release of funding for the border wall.

The SAVE Act is an enforcement-only bill that would fund more walls and provides for the expansion of family detention centers with the T. Don Hutto facility as the model. Representative Rodriguez is one of only two Texas democratic supporters of the SAVE Act (H.R.4088). Representing primarily Mexican@ families, the community organizations feel that locking up children, separating families, and increased militarization of the border violate basic human rights and do nothing to curb immigration.

The organizations represented will include Southwest Workers Union, Fuerza Unida, the Hondo Empowerment Committee, Committee for Environmental Justice Action, the Brown Berets, the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, Austin-based Grassroots Leadership, and NO WALL-Big Bend.
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Labels: Border Wall, migrant rights

// posted by Southwest Workers Union @ 3:45 PM