The Zapata County Commissioners Court this morning enthusiastically and unanimously passed a resolution opposing President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency in order to find funding to build a wall on the southern border.
The resolution was authored by Richard G. Morales Jr., an attorney who is a member of the board of directors of the Rio Grande International Study Center (RGISC). It was presented before the Zapata County Commissioners Court by RGISC executive director Tricia Cortez.
Several members of the Court and members of the audience commented on the importance of the resolution to oppose the declaration of a national emergency.
Judge Rathmell spoke of the importance of river access for water and grazing to cattle ranchers and the direct impact the border wall would have on agriculture and the local economy.
Pct. 3 Commissioner Eddie Martinez called the wall “a colossal waste of money.”
Pct. 1Commissioner Paco Mendoza asked one of the most pointed questions surrounding the resolution, “Who else has passed a resolution?”
Cortez answered that RGISC has endeavored to have government leaders in Laredo and Webb County take a stand by resolution against the declaration of a national emergency.
According to Cortez, two meetings with Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina — one by phone and another in person —proved fruitless. “He cited to us personal reasons for not supporting opposition to the national emergency, and to others, political reasons,” she said.
“Given the impact the wall will have on this life-giving river and on many of Webb County’s ranchers and others in agricultural production, we very much hope Judge Tijerina re-visits the County’s participation with a resolution,” she added.
Though the City of Laredo passed a resolution in 2017 in opposition to the border wall and in favor of a virtual wall, the City has refused to oppose President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency, the funding mechanism that will green light the building of the wall.
The often-divisive City Council is in lock step for the construction of a bulkhead and is in a full press push with federal agencies, including the U.S. Border Patrol, and Congressman Henry Cuellar to build — in lieu of the monstrosity of a steel and concrete barrier at the heart of the City — a contiguous 12-mile bulkhead from Chacon Creek in the South to Manadas Creek in the North.
While that proposed 12-mile stretch of the City will have an aesthetic riverfront replete with a road for Border Patrol, as much as 118 miles of the rest of the City and Webb County will be looking at the non-aesthetic incongruity and environmental assault of a 30-foot wall that will forever impact the river and the human and wildlife populations that depend on it.
Cortez said, “To not oppose the declaration of a national emergency is to say ‘send the money for the wall.’ It is also to say we accept the label of lawlessness in our community, which is one of the justifications for the national emergency. That label, which should be torn to shreds, keeps visitors and new businesses away from Laredo. To not oppose the national declaration of an emergency at the southern border is to say ‘send billions to wall us in and ruin the river, one of the ten most endangered rivers in the world.’”
Laiken Jordahl of the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson — which according to its website has “since the late 1990s, used litigation to block unlawful border policy, grassroots lobbying to stop legislation that would exacerbate environmental damage, and creative media and public-education campaigns to get out the truth about the real impacts of the hugely expensive, largely ineffective, and environmentally devastating border wall” — was in Laredo earlier this month.
He said 37 border communities have passed resolutions in opposition to the wall. “It is important for those who will suffer the greatest impact to take a stand, to formalize their opposition so that there is a link from border community to border community.”
Jordahl said that as he walked along Tres Laredos Park, he found it to be “tranquil and safe.”
Jordahl continued, “The wall would be an abomination on so vital a resource as the Río Grande. The reality of the beauty of the river and its importance to those who live on it is a push back to the declaration of a national emergency.”
He said that cities that are not on the border, like Tucson and Austin, have signed divestment resolutions to no longer conduct business with public works contractors (who build water treatment plants, roads, and municipal facilities) who work on the wall.
RGISC has worked in tandem with local organizations and community activists who stand in opposition to the declaration of a national emergency. They include the Sisters of Mercy, the Webb County Heritage Foundation, LULAC, and citizens Ana and Pancho Quesada, attorney Carlos E. Flores, Richard Sames, and Frontera Radio’s Sergio Mora.
(The signed Zapata County resolution is attached to this story. For further information, please call RGISC at (956) 718-1063.)
Tano y Saenz are Republicans of the worse kind, a pair of political prostitutes. Vendidos.