In Response to Trump's "Big, Beautiful Wall"
Background
Throughout his campaign for the 2016 Presidential Election, 45th President Donald Trump repeatedly promised to overhaul the existing US-Mexico barrier along the country's southernmost border and replace it with an impenetrable wall that Mexico would pay for, claiming the structure essential to the safety of every American citizen. Trump’s statements to reporters about the wall however have been all over the place throughout his presidency thus far while the proposed cost of the wall has ballooned from $4B to $20B. Nearly two years later however, the construction of the wall is still in its early stages and Mexico has stated that they “will not pay, under any circumstances, for a wall or physical barrier built on US territory along the Mexican border”.
Trump has incited intolerance among his supporters toward foreigners and immigrants through his comments the necessity of the wall:
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” Trump said on June 16, 2015. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems … They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
This language is incredibly problematic and rooted in prejudice against other cultures. Statements such as the one above harms US-Latin America dialogue by grouping all Latinx people together as criminals and bad-intentioned people. Trump’ bigoted statements have been met with sharp criticism however with people calling him out at both the national and local level. The New York Times reports on the progression of Trump’s proposed border wall and how it might actually soon become a reality in the video below:
Municipality Response
Some cities have started issuing boycotts against companies that contribute to the construction of the border wall. The city of Austin passed a resolution in late February of 2018 that requires businesses to disclose is they submitted bids or were awarded contracts with the proposed wall. Austin has long voiced opposition to the wall and taxpayers do not want their local dollars going toward the wall’s creation. Austin City Mayor Steve Adler is quoted as saying, “The border wall is not about keeping us safe. It’s a political symbol of fear and division.
The city of Berkeley, CA is also discussing the possibility of blacklisting companies from public funding who assist President Trump’s border wall construction. They believe that the wall would be harmful to California’s economy and hurt the state’s prosperity.
Private Company Response
In November of 2017, Card Against Humanity, a crude adult-card game popular company with millenials and known for its viral pranks, made national headlines by purchasing a tract of land along the US-Mexico border and retained a law firm specializing in eminent domain to make the process as time-consuming and expensive for the government as possible. The company allowed customer to contribute to the project by selling maps of their plot of land on the border for $15 and were sold out within a few hours. This show of support with the company speaks volumes to the number of US citizens, young citizens in particular, that strongly oppose Trump’s border wall.
Individual Response
Trump’s proposed wall also threatens Texas landowners on the Texas-Mexico border as they face the risk of the government claiming their land through eminent domain laws. Families may now see the new border wall built straight through land that has been passed down through generations. In the video below, these Texans describe that the land they might soon be cut off from includes ancestral lands, family burial grounds, and undeveloped wildlife preserves. They do not intend to go down without a fight and push local legislators to find alternatives to the border wall that will keep their land intact while allowing the government to achieve their security goals.
Sovereign Nation Response
Indigenous tribes also face the threat of Trump’s proposed border wall. The Tohono O’odham nation straddles the US-Mexico border across land in southern Arizona and Mexico. While more than 25,000 of the tribe members live in the southern Arizona, an additional 2,000 members live in the Mexico side and a wall would physically divide the nation. Currently, tribe members can freely cross the US-Mexico border by presenting their tribal ID at the San Miguel Gate, an inconspicuous opening in between some metal posts that stand out against the scorched desert land. This decades-old informal arrangement allows tribe members to freely cross the border to access family and friends that live on the other side as well as sacred ancestral lands. President Trump’s proposed border wall jeopardizes their way of life and may eliminate the ability to cross the US-Mexico border within their own nation. If the wall is put up, tribe members will have to travel hundreds of miles to reach the next official entry point. Under no circumstances should the US government, who forcibly took these people’s lands in the first place, prevent the Tohono O’odham tribe members from freely moving about any part of their land.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRPiooJO8wA
The tribe members are not going away silently over this issue however. Tribal members have protested outside Sen. John McCain Tucson office, publicly denouncing the plans for the wall and urging local politicians to respect the Tohono O’odham nation. The tribe has even sent a spokesman to the UN to voice the tribe’s most important issues. Perhaps most powerful however is the YouTube channel of Hon'mana Seukteoma, a 21-year-old Tohono O’odham tribe member. Through her channel She brings a lot of the issues of indigenous people to light and calls out instances of cultural appropriation. She articulates her nation’s opposition to Trump’s proposed border wall that would cut through her nation’s land in an 18 minute video on her channel (shown below): "A 'Letter' to Tohono O'odham; Trump's Wall".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40rWFF8ZeRc
While she wants to get her people’s message out, she is wary of superficial supporters answering her call. She describes how many of the protestors of the Dakota Access Pipeline were there for the experience rather than because it was what they actually believed in. She is part of Indivisible Tohono (link to Twitter page below), a grassroots activist group that fights for the nation’s sovereignty and the organizers of the protest outside Sen. McCain’s office. Seukteoma hopes to galvanize other indigenous activists and to continue to strike up dialogues on Native issues.
"The dream for [my YouTube channel] is to start a community of Native YouTubers," Seukteoma says. "It's amazing to see Native people comment and share their views on the same thing that you're talking about, but they live all the way across the country. It's important to see ourselves represented."
