This week, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators gave a glimmer of hope to immigrant youth currently permitted to remain in the U.S. under the DACA program. Unfortunately, that glimmer of hope comes with threats of increased militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, and it remains a possibility that any potential relief for immigrant youth and families will be tied to funding for Trump’s ludicrous border wall. Fortunately, there are students in Texas leading a movement to fight the border wall within their own communities.
Passionate young people in Texas are working with city councils to pass local resolutions opposing the proposed border wall and Senate Bill 4, Texas’ anti-immigrant “show me your papers” law. These young activists have built a movement that has created a chain reaction throughout Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. Students oppose the border wall and Senate Bill 4 (SB4) for similar reasons: Neither the proposed wall nor the new Texas law will do anything to address the need for comprehensive immigration reform. Instead, both are rooted in anti-immigrant hate and would cause real harm to immigrant youth and border communities.
A border wall would devastate our hometowns: Such a proposal is financially irresponsible, likely logistically impossible and environmentally disastrous. The existing wall has already taken land from local communities, endangered ecosystems, and divided immigrant youth from families, economic opportunities and even health care. Instead of using resources on an ineffective border wall, we should use those resources to invest in our communities’ health care and other necessities.
SB4, Texas’ new anti-immigrant law, bans sanctuary cities and allows law enforcement to ask persons suspected of being immigrants for documentation during something as routine as a traffic stop. This policy—like the unconstitutional Arizona law that inspired it–will only contribute to an atmosphere of fear and isolation that hurts women and young people.
The border wall and SB4 also affect our communities’ sexual and reproductive health: Undocumented people are already limited in travel by immigration checkpoints, meaning our access to basic reproductive care like abortion and birth control can be cut off. How is an immigrant woman who’s afraid to drive her car at all supposed to take her kids to school or see a doctor when she needs to?
Texas students have led successful campaigns to pass local resolutions against both the border wall and SB4. The Rio Grande Valley has seen successful resolutions against the border wall passed in Brownsville, Hidalgo County, La Joya, Mission and Weslaco. Seven cities have passed a resolution against Texas’ SB4. In total, 12 resolutions have passed because of the effort of motivated students.
The first resolution to pass was in Brownsville, and it was led by URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity’s youth activists. Gabby Zavala, the campaign manager for the Brownsville team, says, “You learn more about who to contact and who can link you to city council members by actually getting in your car and visiting the city offices and asking people how you can get a meeting with the commissioners.”
Ultimately, the most important thing activists brought to their work was passion. Young people took a proactive approach, pressuring city officials with one-on-one outreach. In the case of border wall resolutions, young activists in the Rio Grande Valley found their champions by appealing to the commissioner’s sense of home, identity and community. Through persistence, coalition building and community support, the resolution made it to the city commissioner agenda.
Not only did young activists and students start these resolutions, they inspired other cities along the border to pass their own. Organizations like the Lower Rio Grande Valley Sierra Club and ARISE joined URGE to help these resolutions gain traction across the Rio Grande Valley. The students recognized the connections among immigrant rights, protecting the planet and ensuring that every person has the ability to raise safe and healthy families, and leveraged relationships with diverse allies to get the job done.
But the fight isn’t over. We need Texans who support these efforts to take action. Student activists who want to get involved can learn more at www.URGE.org. Young people have tremendous power, and we need to make sure our cities and universities know that we are here, our communities deserve respect, and we won’t let the Trump administration play politics with our homes, or our health.
Ofelia Alonso
UTRGV history senior
