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_Check out our new Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) Border Lens page that illustrates how COVID-19 is affecting border communities and how taxpayer dollars could be spent on keeping communities healthy and recovering from the pandemic instead of building more of Trump’s (devastatingly harmful) border wall campaign prop.

_The family of David Villalobos (¡presente!), along with Alliance San Diego and the American Friends Service Committee (and us), mourn the senseless and brutal loss of life and demand a full, independent and transparent investigation--free from DHS interference--after Mr. Villalobos was fatally shot by a  Border Patrol agent at the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego.

_SBCC steering committee member Ricky Garza of the Texas Civil Rights Project told CNN that Trump’s lethal border wall obsession is forcing border region residents  “to choose between their health and their homes.” 

_While the Trump administration has terminated crucial protections for gray wolves in the United States, that decision doesn’t apply to a small population of Mexican grey wolves in Arizona and New Mexico, although these Mexican grey wolves still face extinction by border wall construction, notes SBCC steering committee member Kevin Bixby of the Southwest Environmental Center. 

_There is absolutely zero reason to celebrate 400 miles (possibly prematurely) of Trump’s border wall being constructed; our colleagues at the Washington Office of Latin America (WOLA) break down the harms here.

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must_reads

_WE VOTE for a new border vision. Next week we will get a sense of who will lead this country and how this may affect almost 20 million people who live in our beloved borderlands. As the clock ticks down, we encourage  you to join SBCC’s WE VOTE campaign and vote for sensible values:

• WE VOTE to Defund Hate and to better invest in schools, health care, housing, and green infrastructure to create thriving communities. 
• WE VOTE to stop the trauma, destruction and chaos of family separation.
• WE VOTE in support of immigrant leaders who aspire for a better future in line with our nation’s human rights and faith values to restore dignity to our communities.
• WE VOTE for the judicious use of taxpayer dollars, instead of the gigantic waste of taxpayer dollars to build a lethal monument to racism at our nation’s southern doorstep. 
• WE VOTE to protect our beloved wildlife and our country’s most biodiverse region. 
• WE VOTE to take the destructive border wall down (story quotes SBCC steering committee member Pedro Rios of American Friends Service Committee and Yours Truly). 
• WE VOTE to defend and protect ancestral tribal lands, tribal sovereignty, and scarce water sources on tribal lands.
• WE VOTE against Trump’s 102 damnations (i.e., anti-immigrant policies placed into effect under Trump’s administration in the last four years). 
• WE VOTE to protect families and children fleeing violence. 
• WE VOTE for a New Border Vision that re-thinks borders and creates a new border governance model that expands community/public safety, protects human rights and human life, and creates a welcoming system for all. 

What values will YOU vote for?

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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. The Southern Border Communities Coalition is a program of Alliance San Diego.