One_liners

_Please watch_and share widely_our newest video that illustrates what people are saying about Trump’s wasteful, harmful and unnecessary wall.

_U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) shared publicly Trump’s absurd plan to build 256 miles of new border barriers in South Texas.

_On Thursday, Feb. 1, the City of Austin joined more than 30 other local entities and passed a resolution against a border wall, stating the city will no longer do business with border wall contractors.

_SBCCers Christian Ramirez and Pedro Rios spoke about the resistance against a border wall in the San Diego area in this article by The Guardian.

_This poignant blog by Latin American Working Group, a long-time SBCC partner, illustrates how our country’s harsh border policies are putting the lives of asylum seekers at risk.

Must_reads

_Banging our heads against a wall. After a strong backlash from environmental and immigrant rights groups, and Democrats and Republicans (perhaps for different reasons) against the Trump administration’s so-called “immigration reform framework,” the negotiations for a DACA fix may have hit a wall. The pushback was against a proposal that offered a potential pathway to citizenship for up to 1.8 million Dreamers, but then demanded too much in return, including $25 billion to fund a harmful border wall and other border enforcement resources, the elimination of the diversity visa, and excessive cuts to family unity by doing away with the ability to sponsor immigration visas for parents, brothers and sisters. These over-the-top demands are poison-pilling a dream to death.

_Wallsense. We held a media telephonic briefing, “The Real Casualties of a Border Wall,” which was covered by various media outlets including the Brownsville Herald. It included the participation of Christian Ramirez, SBCC director, U.S. Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA), Jason Wells, executive director of the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce, Jim Chapman, Lower Rio Grande Valley, Sierra Club, Greisa Martinez, director of advocacy and policy at United We Dream, and the Most Reverend Mark Seitz, Bishop of El Paso, Texas. “We should not be using border communities and the lives of Dreamers as bargaining chips to score cheap political points,” noted Ramirez. Let’s hope we’re not talking to a brick wall.

_Up against the wall, again. Next week the spending bill deadline comes up again (for the fifth time) on Feb. 8 and there is talk of another continuing resolution. Despite the fact that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised there would be a debate on DACA before the deadline, all eyes may again see a bipartisan solution ignored_i.e., the Dream Act_while elected officials push to take advantage of the now exhausted majority of the American people, who are rolling their eyes, sighing heavily, and wondering if the administration and Congress will drop its blackmailing tactics and do the right thing by passing a permanent fix for young immigrants who are American in all but paperwork.

_A kingdom for a wall. We know we sound like a broken record, but we need to continue to push for common sense in this conversation. Poll after poll show that the majority of Americans are against a border wall and that they want the bipartisan Dream Act to pass. We know a border wall would be a waste of taxpayer’s money_especially when it could be spent on better things, like improved roads, schools, and hospitals. We also know that it would be damaging to wildlife, rip away land from U.S.private property and ranch owners, and create life-threatening flooding and environmental damage. Yet we have a president obsessed with fulfilling this misguided campaign promise at all costs. Please call your congressional members and tell them the only way forward is the bipartisan Dream Act now.

-------------------

border_lines is published every Friday for your reading pleasure. If you’d like to submit an item for inclusion, please email Vicki B. Gaubeca at [email protected], by Wednesday COB.

subscribe to border_lines