Action – “But I’ve already done it!” Do it again today!
Talks are stalled, but it looks like the Dems are waffling on a $2 billion “partial wall” compromise with our tax money.
Option #1: We just dig a really big pit and thrown money into it, because that’s how effective a traditional border wall is…
Option #2: We pick what’s been behind the curtain since 2017, which is when Rep. Will Hurd, a Republican from Texas, put out a bill advocating a fiber-optic security system at the border, one that would also provide broadband access to nearby rural communities.
Fiber-optic cable technology has already been tested, costs a fraction of the money to build a wall, can be installed with little ground disturbance or on existing walls, allows animals to migrate, and doesn’t create future flooding dams. (Trump’s wall is already damaging ecosystems and wildlife).
Multiple issues beyond the border: Overcrowded ports of entry and our brutal child separation policies combine to force asylum seekers to cross in the middle of nowhere, where they are in danger of dying of dehydration and exposure without being rescued – literally thousands of people. Both problems need to be solved along with valid privacy concerns expressed in this letter to Congress, whose signers state that “Technologies that are deployed at the border to target travelers, journalists, and immigrant families inevitably end up in our major cities targeting low-income communities, religious minorities, and political activists.” All true and some of it is already happening. But since a sensible open border policy doesn’t appear possible until Trump is removed, a buried cable solution denies Trump the political theater of a visual wall, and if a cable actually got installed, security aspects could be deactivated when we return to a humane system of immigration, much easier than removing hundreds of miles of physical walls.
(This video is from one company describing this 21st century solution.)
Per Rep. Hurd: “Some of the rural communities along the border that don’t have access to really high-speed internet would be able to tap into [it].” (For Trump) “Replace some of the miles that are already there with upgraded physical barrier, and then we need to have technologies — the smart wall, the fiber-optic cable, the radar, lidar, high-infrared cameras, things like that,” Hurd told “The Daily.” “Can we make sure we have all of the tools necessary within the ports of entry? And then the equivalent of a Marshall Plan for the Northern Triangle. You do those things, and I think that is the outline of a solution.”
A smart border, not a death trap in the desert. Communication inclusion for millions of Americans. A reversible security solution. Aid to countries to reduce violence and grow their own economies. Stopping this destructive cycle of shutdowns. It’s a start.
Minimal Script. I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Rep./Sen. [___] to know in the upcoming negotiations to fully fund the government for 2019, we want four essential things: NO WALL FUNDING, NO taking border funding from domestic or social safety net programs, NO cuts or blocks to legal immigration, refugee or asylum programs, and NO wasting our troop’s time by militarizing the border.
More script if you want it: Talk to Rep. Will Hurd about fiber-optic cable solutions and a Marshall Plan for the Northern Triangle. Build on Obama’s “Alliance for Prosperity”.!
Contact
Rep. Julia Brownley: email, (CA-26): DC (202) 225-5811, Oxnard (805) 379-1779, T.O. (805) 379-1779
or Rep. Salud Carbajal: email. (CA-24): DC (202) 225-3601, SB (805) 730-1710 SLO (805) 546-8348
Senator Feinstein: email, DC (202) 224-3841, LA (310) 914-7300, SF (415) 393-0707, SD (619) 231-9712, Fresno (559) 485-7430
and Senator Harris: email, DC (202) 224-3553, LA (213) 894-5000, SAC (916) 448-2787, Fresno (559) 497-5109, SF (415) 355-9041, SD (619) 239-3884
Who is my representative/senator?: https://whoismyrepresentative.com
Background
“Why would you want to toss billions of dollars on a useless project that would have absolutely zero impact? Zero impact. … It’s not going to stop anything. They’ll tunnel. They’ll punch holes in it and put French doors with stained glass on that wall. They’ll fly over it” (with cheap drones). – Mike Vigil, former head of international operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration.
There are so many ways over, under and around his physical wall idea, and so much proof that neither drugs nor terrorists would be stopped by it, that there has to be another reason why Trump keeps insisting on this solution.
We think there’s money it it for him. After all, he’s losing soooo much in this “loser” job…
Here’s a great list of other issues from Suit Up Maine, in case you want more ammunition. “17 reasons to oppose the wall”
Get and share our new “Resistance Coloring Book – Stupid Border Wall Edition” here.
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 