Opinion

Wall will threaten Laredo’s water and environment

The outlet mall in Laredo, Texas, next to the border crossing bridge, seen from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, on Jan. 11. There are fears that a border wall will bisect important parts of the city. The outlet mall in Laredo, Texas, next to the border crossing bridge, seen from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, on Jan. 11. There are fears that a border wall will bisect important parts of the city. Photo: MERIDITH KOHUT /NYT Photo: MERIDITH KOHUT /NYT Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Wall will threaten Laredo’s water and environment 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

On Monday, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, or CBP, planners will be in Laredo to begin assessing where to place a wall in our community.

At a State of the Border address on Feb. 1, Felix Chavez, interim chief for the U.S. Border Patrol’s Laredo sector, presented information to justify the 150 river miles of wall construction requested for Webb and Zapata counties. CBP believes that a permanent, impermeable barrier is necessary to meet its goal of “operational control.”

To our dismay, we learned that CBP wants to specifically target Laredo’s middle reach as a top funding priority for the wall. This is a position with which we fiercely disagree.

This area represents the heart of Laredo’s urban center. It includes downtown, the Laredo College campus, densely populated middle- and low-income residential areas, and prime parks, trails and habitat for recreation, kayaking and birding, which have made Laredo and the lower Rio Grande Valley a major destination for eco-tourists.

Historical data on illegal apprehensions clearly indicate that there is no urgent, or even impending, border crisis. The data shows that in 2017, apprehensions for Laredo and the entire Southwest border were at an all-time low, similar to the early 1970s. The 2018 numbers were at one-fourth of their peak in 2000. As for illegal drug seizures, BP data show that more than 90 percent occur at ports of entry.

Meanwhile, our government has waived every regulation for wall construction on our biodiverse river floodplain, dismantling protections that directly impact the security of Laredo’s only source of drinking water, which we share with 6 million people up and down the Rio Grande.

In waiving the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act, Solid Waste Disposal Act and at least 20 other environmental laws, the Trump administration threatens the health and safety of millions of Americans and Mexicans who live along the banks of this river.

Today’s border situation is complicated by the changing demographics of immigration. In the past, migrants were overwhelmingly single males from Mexico. Today, 78 percent are from countries other than Mexico, and families and unaccompanied minors now make up 60 percent of illegal apprehensions.

Contributing factors include violence and poverty in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, which are propelling migrants northward to legally seek asylum; an overloaded court system; and detention policies that complicate crossings at legal points of entry, creating incentives to cross between the ports.

A wall does not address these deeper-rooted factors and therefore will not resolve the migrant situation at the border. Therefore, we urge our congressional leaders to budget zero dollars toward the wall so that security funds are better spent on more urgent and pressing measures — increasing staff and upgrading technology at ports of entry and between the ports of entry.

We urge them to:

Restore all environmental laws, which are vital to protect the health and welfare of all of us who live on the border.

Budget for southbound interdiction to intercept cash and guns flowing into Mexico, which embolden the drug cartels with greater resources.

Propose policy changes to help resolve the factors that drive migrants from their countries.

Constructing a wall in Laredo’s urban center would devastate our landscape, ecology, cultural heritage and quality of life.

Flooding could significantly increase in our lower-lying sister city, creating a wreckage whose risk will not be addressed because of the dismissal of construction regulations. Hundreds of species of wildlife rely on river access for their survival. Relocating millions of dollars’ worth of city infrastructure now near the river’s edge illustrates real-world costs of implementation.

Laredo is a historic community in the South Texas borderlands. Its lifeblood, the Rio Grande, has been its No. 1 asset since our community’s founding in 1755. We cannot support this wall, especially when the Border Patrol’s own data contradict the reason for its conception.

The Rio Grande continues to rank as one of the 10 most endangered rivers in the world. Every effort must be made by our federal government to protect and preserve it — not to destroy it and the wildlife, drinking water and dynamic communities that it sustains.

Melissa R. Cigarroa is board president and Tricia Cortez is executive director of the Rio Grande International Study Center, an environmental advocacy group based in Laredo.