Hello Subscribers! I’m writing from New Hampshire today. I’m now 12 days and four events into the speaking tour, marking the second edition release of Crossing the Line. And my schedule is about to amp up, with events nearly every day from now until Halloween. I aim to keep posting as much as I can, because I’m learning so much and meeting so many people and have so much to share! But bear with me if communications become spotty, as most of my “free” time for the next month or so will be spent driving.
Today’s podcast was drawn from the September 28 webinar of the Hope Knows No Borders Network, with Borderlands Coordinator for the Sierra Club, Erick Meza, and Russ McSpadden, Southwest Conservation Advocate at the Center for Biodiversity.
They inform us that, even as I type these words, a place of outrageous and awe-inspiring biodiversity is being cleaved asunder by the outrageous disregard for the natural world on the part of a president and crony contractors who care only about lining their pockets — not for the future of the planet nor of the people, animals, and environmental integrity of the US borderlands and American continent.
”It’s almost like border communities do not deserve the same kind of protection that the rest of the country does,” states Erick Meza. Which is racism. Plain and simple.
Racism and greed are driving some of the richest biospheres of the Americas into extinction all because the US Department of Homeland “Security” has too much power, thanks to the 109th Congress of the United States.
We’ve all been so focused — and rightly so — on the cruelty and lawlessness of the ICE Gestapo and the simultaneous destruction of the US government and judiciary; the government shut down, and the widespread loss of livelihoods. In the chaos, we may have forgotten Trump & Co’s first campaign promise — to Build the Wall — and taken our eyes off their continuing threats to the natural world.
Tragically, Border wall building continues, and for only one purpose: to enrich Donald Trump’s campaign donors, which is otherwise known as “crony capitalism.”
Steel bollards are going up in the beautiful and formerly pristine San Raphael Valley of Arizona as the desert water table is being drained and artesian water systems destroyed, all to mix cement and keep heavy machinery owned by North Dakota-based Fisher Sand & Gravel free of dust and debris. The company was only able to pocket 334 million of our tax dollars to build the wall after Kristi Noem waived dozens of environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act, to make it happen.
The process, which cut the public out of decision-making, Erick states, flouted expected norms of accountability. Russ refers to the stretch of oak woodlands, grassland savannah, and mountainous “stepping stone” slopes Fisher Sand & Gravel workers are now bulldozing as “the most important wildlife corridor left in Arizona connected to Mexico.”
The region is home to ocelots, javelina, pronghorn, and porcupines; bears, lions, and hundreds of species of bees; flying pollinators, such as bats, birds, and butterflies; and the majestic endangered northern jaguar, which conservationists like Russ have spent decades trying to save from extinction. It is an area uniquely untouched by humans, including those seeking safety and a life free from harm.
The ugly and unnecessary monolithic steel barrier — painted black on the president’s orders so that it might burn human hands — is the “nail in the coffin” for biodiversity in the region, says Erick.
Though erected, they say, to thwart human migration, we know from the first Trump regime that existing stretches of border wall have blocked animal routes, compromising habitats and threatening species. Construction disturbs wildlife, halts genetic interchange, depletes irreplaceable groundwater aquifers, disrupts the integrity of borderland communities, tramples cultural protections, and shreds environment-saving legislative precedent, as it robs budgets for schools and rural hospitals.
It’s an unregulated experiment en route to causing a catastrophic continental crisis.
Please don’t look away! Listen …
Everyone must know about all the ways that this government is chipping away not only at our rights, but also those of our four-legged, flying, and finned friends, while they pick our pockets at the same time. Everyone must know the beautiful humanity that exists alongside the destruction.
It may be happening at the border. But it is affecting everyone. Because, as Russ and Erick explain in this podcast episode, immigration justice intersects with planetary justice, which impacts human life and wildlife alike: border justice = environmental justice = migration justice.
Rally for the Valley: Multicultural Border Happening November 15!
Join Russ, Erick, and other borderlands conservationists to save the San Raphael Valley. Learn more about why we must stop this madness before it’s too late … and how. It may well include abolishing the Department of Homeland “Security,” which isn’t keeping anyone secure at all.
The next meet-up of the Hope Knows No Border Workshop will feature Sarah addressing the Community Church of Boston on how immigration was transformed into a weapon to drive US democracy into crisis: October 26, 11:00 am - 1:30 pm ET.
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