Hello all,

 

On behalf of my colleague Laiken Jordahl, Cc, please consider joining the nearly 60 organizations by signing your organization on to the attached letter asking the Biden transition team/admin to halt all wall construction efforts on January 20th. Deadline extended to COB Monday, November 2. Sign on via this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1cJrFTuZZprOyJdYIrgVr7Hj4sWCC3RpIU8P27OVSquM.

 

We see this as the first step in a much larger campaign to tear down the wall, rehabilitate the land, restore justice to border communities. Feel free to share this email and sign-on link with any organizations that may be interested. And as always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns. LJordahl@biologicaldiversity.org

 

 

November XX, 2020

 

President-Elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Biden-Harris Transition

Washington, DC

 

Re: Halt Border Wall Construction on January 20th

 

Dear President-Elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.,

 

We write to ask you to take immediate action to order the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, and Department of Justice to halt all construction and land acquisition efforts for Trump’s border wall on your first day in office. Every day, border wall construction continues to desecrate Indigenous sacred sites, destroy federally protected wildlands, and rip border communities and family homes in two. There is great urgency in stopping border wall construction. Each day brings more irreparable damage.

 

The construction of Trump’s wall has forever harmed Indigenous sacred sites, ancestral lands and burial grounds. Last month, members of the Tohono O’odham Nation were tear-gassed and shot with rubber bullets while peacefully protesting the desecration of their lands. Tohono O’odham Tribal Chairman Ned Norris Jr. called border wall construction “no different from DHS building a 30-foot wall along Arlington Cemetery,” and demanded the Trump administration cease all construction activity immediately. A clear directive must be sent to all employees of the executive branch that these violent actions against Indigenous peoples and their homelands are immoral, and must cease without delay. 

 

Hundreds of miles of Trump’s wall have been built outside the scope of environmental law, inflicting permanent damage on wildlife refuges, national park lands, and wilderness areas. Wildlife corridors have been cut off, critical habitat for endangered species has been dynamited, and protected plant species have been bulldozed. Millions of gallons of precious desert groundwater have been recklessly sucked out of the ground for the wall’s concrete foundation. Rare desert springs are drying up and endangered species are now on the brink of extinction.

 

The border wall is separating vibrant communities and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars — including billions in military funding illegally diverted for construction. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice is aggressively bringing eminent domain actions against countless families along the border, forcing them to fight legal battles to save their homes and land.

 

All of this can be stopped the day you take office — halt wall construction, cancel existing construction contracts, and stop all land acquisition and eminent domain proceedings. These simple, immediate actions will spare Indigenous sacred sites from destruction, save wildlife from extinction, protect our public lands, and help countless families stay in their homes.

 

Sincerely,

 

1.         Texas Civil Rights Project

2.         Southern Border Communities Coalition

3.         Center for Biological Diversity

4.         EarthJustice

5.         Defenders of Wildlife

6.         Rio Grande International Study Center

7.         Washington Office on Latin America

8.         American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona

9.         American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas

10.       Hispanic Federation

11.       San Xavier District, Tohono O'odham Nation

12.       Hickiwan District, Tohono O'odham Nation

13.       Sells District, Tohono O'odham Nation

14.       Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe

15.       Indigenous Alliance Without Borders

16.       National Parks Conservation Association

17.       Wildlands Network

18.       MoveOn

19.       Arizona Trail Association

20.       Northern Jaguar Project

21.       Madrean Archipelago Wildlife Center

22.       Borderlands Restoration Network

23.       Gila Resources Information Project

24.       BORDER ANGELS

25.       Hia-Ced Hemajkam, LLC

26.       End Streamline Coalition

27.       NM café

28.       Friends of Friendship Park

29.       Hope Border Institute

30.       No Border Wall Laredo Coalition

31.       Border Patrol Victims network

32.       Frontera de Cristo

33.       San Miguel PEN

34.       Veterans for Peace San Diego Chapter

35.       Webb County Heritage Foundation

36.       Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

37.       Haitian Bridge Alliance

38.       San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium

39.       Healing Hands Medical Mission

40.       Guatemala Acupuncture and Medical Aid Project

41.       Priests of the Sacred Heart, US Province

42.       Order of Secular Franciscans

43.       Mothers and Others; Justice and Mercy for Immigrants

44.       Sisters of Mercy Laredo Texas

45.       Justice Action Center

46.       Arivaca Wall Resistors

47.       Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

48.       Insights El Paso Science Center

49.       Arizona Youth Climate Coalition

50.       Green Valley Samaritans

51.       Pax Christi El Paso

52.       Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team

53.       Union for Reform Judaism

54.       Witness at the Border

55.       Fellowship Southwest

56.       Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA)

57.       Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC

58.       St. Mark's Presbyterian Church

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Paulo Lopes

Public Lands Policy Specialist // Staff Attorney

Center for Biological Diversity

plopes@biologicaldiversity.org

202-849-8398