Texans to Bush: Get Off Our Lawn! | Hands Across El Rio: first-ever binational protest

Texans to Bush: Get Off Our Lawn!
Posted by Marisa Treviño at 12:00 PM on August 16, 2007.

Marisa Treviño: Texas activists, politicians and local law enforcement are uniting to oppose Bush's plans for a border fence in their backyard.

A funny thing happened on the way to building the Lower Rio Grande Valley portion of the Texas-Mexico border fence.

It was something that caught Chertoff and the Department of Homeland Security off guard, the White House, Congress and even the average American citizen who lives miles away from the border in question -- Texans, who actually live along that portion of the border, don't want it.

It's a concept that is hard for the rest of the country to grasp. After all, aren't border residents living in fear for their lives by living on the frontlines with what conservative extremists like to term "the invasion" of illegal immigrants?

Well, according to border residents, the only invasion they're feeling is the one from Washington that is dictating that a fence be built through, along and around their communities.

The idea of a physical structure being built is so repulsive to these residents that in a show of rare solidarity, unlike anywhere else seen in the country, activists and environmentalists are joining forces with politicians, business owners and local law enforcement to present to Congress alternative ways to secure this portion of the border.

(snip)

Well, being Texans, these border citizens have had enough. So, they've joined with their counterparts in Mexico for the border's first-ever binational protest.

They're calling it Hands Across El Rio and it begins August 25.

Spanning 16 days, 1,250 miles, it's a protest that involves Americans and Mexicans forming human chains across the international bridges, daily binational press conferences and the launch of a flotilla of kayaks, canoes and inner tubes that will paddle down the Rio Grande to each international bridge to join the protests in progress.


Continued @ http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/59956/

Hands Across el Rio...a 1250 mile...
16 day protest against the border wall
August 25 through September 9 - click here for Itinerary

We are not launching as early as anticipated...but the launch date is going to be worth the wait. Yesterday, we received the commitment of El Paso to support our project with a press conference on August 25th and a send off on August 26th. Folks in the Big Bend region want to support the Presidio-Ojinaga event on August 28th. Both Mayors of Del Rio and Ciudad Acuña are pledged to support the event 31st. Mayor Chad Foster of Eagle Pass is in touch with the Alcalde of Piedras Negras to receive us on September 1st.

Mexican Congresswoman, Maria Dolores Gonzales-Mendivil will lead the coordination of Los Dos Laredos Hands Across el Rio on September 2nd. She is also coordinating support to the four Mexican neighboring states of Texas, the alcaldes along el Rio Bravo (mayors on the Mexican side) and Mexican consuls. We're lining up similar commitments from Roma-Miguel Aleman, Rio Grande City-Camargo, Los Ebanos-Diaz Ordaz, McAllen/Hidalgo-Reynosa on down to Brownsville-Matamoros on September 8th. We will finish our journey at the mouth of the Rio Grande at Boca Chica on Sunday, September 9th.

LULAC National, Rosa Rosales, President and Jaime Martinez, Treasurer, have committed their support of Hand Across el Rio. The same is true of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement. We anticipate the support of many other organizations and coalitions, from environmental, cultural, economic, political, faith based and tourism.

With the exception of El Paso y Juarez...we will launch kayaks and canoes upriver from each principal international pedestrian bridge. Any one who wants to join our flotillas for any portion or any day of this historical event is welcome to do so. Kayaks, canoes, inner-tubes. We will paddle down river to each international bridge respectively and meet up with fellow grass roots citizens from both sides of our Rio who are opposed to the wall. As we experienced in Roma and Miguel Aleman this past weekend...we will be inviting the grass roots folks from both sides of el Rio...to form a human chain in symbol of our border solidarity and amistad.

As Mayor Chad Foster says..."We're joined at the hip". That’s something that folks like Lou Dobbs and members of Congress who have never lived inside the checkpoints do not understand. Our Congressmen and Texas legislators from the border region have spoken out against the border wall. The Texas Border Coalition of our border mayors, judges and economic experts have all spoken in our behalf...in solidarity...against the wall. Our border sheriffs have spoken out against the wall. No one in Washington is listening to them. Now...we the people of the Rio Grand Corridor...from both sides of el Rio...must make our voices heard. "NO Border Wall...!" "Hell NO!!!

We can tell the Congress and the national media all day long that we who live on the border live in friendship with our neighbors on the other side of el Rio. We can tell them that we don't want to be in a militarized zone...on American soil...here in Texas. Now...we will show them why we don’t need one. We get along just fine!

En amistad and solidarity…


http://www.borderambassadors.com/itinerary.html