Secret Border-Wall Work At Wildlife Sanctuaries Galvanizes Opposition

"Federal officials and contractors months ago surreptitiously began what appears to be preparation work for construction of border wall on the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in South Texas. Word recently got out and has galvanized opposition to that plan – and to the way it has been carried out.

On Saturday, Aug. 12, between 700 and 1,000 people marched four miles from the town of Mission to La Lomita Chapel, a historic mission on the banks of the Rio Grande. The following morning, about 650 people gathered about 15 miles east on the Santa Ana refuge, at one point creating what organizers called a “human wall of solidarity” – participants holding hands in a line nearly a mile long on a levee across the federal property’s northern edge.

“We were very pleased with the turnout,” said Scott Nicol, co-chair of the Sierra Club Borderlands campaign, one of the organizers of the protests. “About 40 different organizations worked together, representing environmental and human rights [concerns], covering the spectrum of reasons people oppose the wall. Our goal was to demonstrate to the rest of the country that there is widespread opposition to border walls in the region.”"

Melissa Gaskill reports for Texas Climate News August 18, 2017.