Activists cite ecological, social connections in blocking US border wall construction (commentary)

Filed 1h ago · Via Mongabay · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Blue Feather

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Diplomatic Security Service from Washington, D.C., United St · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Activists in Lochiel, Arizona occupied a 200-year-old cottonwood dubbed Grandmother Tree for more than 70 days to block construction of a segment of double border wall, while a parallel encampment formed across the border in Sonora, Mexico. Border Patrol agents and local law enforcement surveilled the site with helicopters and drones before removing the tree sitter and cutting the tree down on Oct. 5, without showing protesters a warrant, according to activists present.

The Department of Homeland Security waived dozens of federal laws, including the Endangered Species Act, to expedite construction, despite the San Rafael Valley serving as a documented wildlife corridor for jaguars, ocelots, and the endangered yellow-billed cuckoo. Protesters, some arrested on disorderly conduct charges during a September demonstration, argue the wall fragments habitat and divides communities straddling the border. A new tree occupation, named Abuela, has since begun on the Mexican side.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A law meant to protect an endangered bird got waived so a wall could go up through the one valley where that bird still crosses the border, and nobody in Washington had to explain that trade to a single voter. It takes a particular kind of confidence to call something an emergency serious enough to skip every normal rule, then let it sit there for months while a person lives in a tree arguing about it. The cottonwood is gone either way, and the paperwork that let it happen required no debate at all.

Source: Read the original at Mongabay → Scored: Blue Feather · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0