Triple Border Fence

Local Groups to Denounce DHS Construction of Border Fencing near San Diego Coast,
Call for Public Hearings
San Diego, California –  A growing coalition of local groups will release a statement Thursday denouncing Department of Homeland Security construction of supplemental fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border near the coast in San Diego as “an offense to the peoples of the San Diego/Tijuana region.”  The statement will call on elected officials at all levels of government to convene hearings to bring to light the scale and scope of the project and explore alternatives to the proposed DHS construction. 
Fence construction along the border is set to enter a new phase in June, as private contractors go to work on the next phase of a major public works project that has been shielded from external review.  To enable an accelerated timeline for construction of fencing along the border, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff has waived over 30 federal, state and local laws and regulations.  While a 2005 act of Congress granted this authority to DHS officials, it does not suggest that elected officials and community organizations should be denied access to plans for fence construction.
Early endorsers of the statement calling for greater transparency and openness about the project include environmental groups such as San Diego Coastkeeper, the Environmental Health Coalition, WiLDCOAST, and the San Diego chapters of the Audubon Society and the California Native Plant Society. 
Also endorsing are human rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties, the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium, the American Friends Service Committee – U.S./Mexico Border Project, and the Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights.
Other community-based organizations already endorsing the statement include the Foundation for Change, the Save Our Heritage Organisation, the Center for Social Advocacy, the Border Meetup Group, Activist San Diego and Border Angels.
Signaling the group’s intention to reach out to partner organizations in Tijuana, COSTASALVAjE, A.C., is the first non-governmental organization from Mexico to sign on as an endorser of the statement.
The following are among the coalition members who will be available for interview at the press conference: John Fanestil (Executive Director, Foundation for Change); Jim Peugh (San Diego Audobon Society); Pedro Rios (American Friends Service Committee); Rosemary Johnston (Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights); Bruce Coons (Save Our Heritage Organisation); Daniel Watman (Border Meetup Group).
“The Bush Administration and its allies in Congress have spent recent years confusing the issue of immigration with national security concerns,” said John Fanestil, Executive Director of the Foundation for Change and a member of the coalition’s leadership group.  “If the triple fence project near the San Diego coast is completed as proposed, it will stand as a monument to this confusion.  There are better options for the future of our region than building a ‘fortress San Diego.’  Those options need to be explored.”
 “This project is being pursued as if it were a covert operation,” said Rosemary Johnston, a Board member of the Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights.  “DHS officials have refused to consult with local people who understand the San Diego borderlands and the people who live here.  That’s why we are calling on our elected officials to convene public hearings.  People deserve to know what the Department of Homeland Security is actually planning to do.”
 
Jim Peugh, Conservation Chair of the San Diego Chapter of the Audubon Society, said: “The potential for environmental catastrophe is real.  The Tijuana Estuary is one of San Diego’s true ecological treasures.  It should not be put at risk.”
PRESS CONFERENCE: Thursday, May 15, 11 a.m.
DIRECTIONS:  Take I-5 to Dairy Mart Rd Exit (2 exits north of the border) and go west.  Follow Dairy Mart Rd for about 3/4 of a mile over the river.  Just past the river, you will see the water treatment plant.  At the far end of the water treatment plant turn left onto Monument Rd.  and go back around the back of the water treatment plant where you will find the staging area.  There is room to park along the Rd. behind the Water Treatment plant.  Note - where you turn left, Dairy Mart Rd. converts into Monument Rd. but it is not the correct Monument Rd., you must turn left and go behind the Water Treatment Plant in order to get to area.
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Coalition Statement - An Offense to the Peoples of the San Diego/Tijuana Region
We call for an immediate halt to the construction of supplementary border fencing near the coast in San Diego. This Federal Government project is an offense to the peoples of the San Diego/Tijuana region. 
We call on elected officials at all levels of government to convene public hearings so that the far-reaching implications of this project will be brought to light, and so that alternatives can be explored.
While reinforcing the current fence on the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego, the Department of Homeland Security is now building supplementary fencing along the border’s western-most 3.5 miles.  The second fence – twenty feet high, made of steel mesh, and angled at the top – will stand north of the border at distances ranging from 130 feet to over 800 feet.  DHS plans call for grading and clearing the land between these two barriers, uprooting all native vegetation and constructing an all-weather patrol road made of decomposed granite.   A third fence will be built 20 to 24 feet north of the secondary fence, allowing for the construction of a maintenance road in between.   Lights, sensors and cameras will span the project, which will run all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
The project is one of the largest public-works projects in recent San Diego history.  Cutting into the mesa tops and filling the alternating canyons, DHS will be re-locating over 3 million cubic yards of earth.  The total cost of the project will exceed $70 million.
The scale and scope of this project – and an honest assessment of its impact on our region – demand the public’s attention.  Toward this end we submit the following.
The plan to construct this supplementary fencing … 
… is an abuse of the Executive Branch’s constitutional authority. 
To enable construction of supplementary fencing on the border, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff has voided over 30 federal, state and local laws and regulations.  While a 2005 act of Congress granted this authority to DHS officials, to date they have refused to submit their final construction plans for congressional oversight or release these plans for outside review or public scrutiny. 

… is a Big Government boondoggle.
Tens of millions of dollars in government contracts are being finalized without accountability, without Environmental Protection and State inspections and permits, without public input, without cooperation from the Mexican government, and without demonstrated commitment to sound engineering, anti-erosion, and hydrological practices.

… is a land-grab by the Federal Government.
At least one hundred acres of San Diego County land and California State land, long held for recreational and open-space use by the public, have now been condemned for exclusive Federal Government use.  County and State taxpayers have invested over one half billion dollars across many decades to acquire, improve and protect lands along the Tijuana River Valley Estuary and the adjacent border highlands.  These public investments are now being placed at great and enduring risk. 
 
… threatens the vitality of the Tijuana Estuary. 
The Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve is a combination of county, state and federal lands preserving one of the few salt marshes remaining in California.  This fragile ecosystem is home to over 370 species of migratory and native birds, including six endangered species, and has been declared a "Wetland of International Importance" by the International Ramsar Committee, which promotes wetland conservation throughout the world.  Because it depends on the unobstructed ebb and flow of the coastal tides, the estuary could be severely impacted by DHS plans to relocate such massive quantities of erosion-prone soil.  The grading alone will remove or impact the habitat for twelve species of rare plants. There are no suitable mitigation sites left in San Diego for these coastal species, because of development.  Having waived laws that guarantee compliance with environmental protection, DHS cannot presently be held accountable for its plans to control for erosion, sedimentary runoff, backwater flooding, and other risks. 
 
… will thwart the purpose of Border Field State Park. 
Border Field State Park is built around a stone monument placed on site on June 16, 1851 as the first marker of the new boundary between the United States and Mexico.  At the heart of the park’s 396 acres lies “Friendship Park,” with a central plaza at the international boundary, allowing people from Mexico and the United States to visit through the border fence.  DHS plans will result in “unmitigatable adverse impacts to public use and enjoyment” of the Park, according to the California Coastal Commission.  The Coastal Commission describes the proposed construction as “mutually inconsistent with the recreation goals” of visitors to the Park. 

… will destroy a rich cultural landscape.
The construction will limit or prevent public access to many historic and cultural resources, while outright destroying others.  At jeopardy are pre-historic and Native American archeological sites, early Spanish exploration and settlement routes, remains of early ranches, the 1850s border monument, and WWII coastal defense gun control bunkers.  These are places that matter to the citizens of both nations.

… is a most inefficient allocation of law enforcement resources.
The Congressional Research Service reports that apprehensions within the bounds of the Border Patrol’s two western-most stations fell by over 94 percent between 1993 and 2005.  Border-crossings near the coast have already been brought to a virtual halt.  

… continues a failed border enforcement strategy.
Heightened border enforcement near the coast does not prevent migration, but pushes migrants into more dangerous rural areas along the border.  This strategy has created a human rights disaster: since the implementation of the Southwest Border Enforcement Strategy in the mid-1990s, to date more than 5,000 people have died crossing inhospitable areas into the United States.  The construction of additional barriers along the border does nothing to address the economic disparities which drive Mexican migration to the United States. 
 
… discourages bi-national partnership and cooperation.
By reinforcing – both literally and symbolically – the division between our region’s two nations, the construction of more barriers promotes mutual suspicion and mistrust.  Additional barriers make it more difficult to create peaceful relationships and partnerships that can help to resolve our region's problems.

The challenges we face in our border region are real and complex.  They require solutions that are realistic and forward-looking.   The future of our region depends on the peoples and governments of Mexico and the United States working in concert to create greater degrees of economic equality and social justice.  The construction of supplementary border fencing by unilateral decree of the U.S. Federal Government drives another wedge between the people of our sister cities when we should, instead, be promoting greater bi-national collaboration.   
We call on elected officials at all levels of government to convene public hearings so that the far-reaching implications of this project will be brought to light, and so that alternatives can be explored.

ENDORSEMENTS AS OF MAY 13, 2008
Activist San Diego
American Civil Liberties Union, San Diego & Imperial Counties
American Friends Service Committee – U.S./Mexico Border Program
San Diego Audubon Society
Border Angels
Border Meetup Group
California Native Plant Society, San Diego Chapter
Center for Social Advocacy
Citizens’ Organizing Projects
San Diego Coastkeeper
COSTASALVAjE A.C.
Environmental Health Coalition
Foundation for Change
San Diego Friends MeetingImmigrant Rights Consortium
Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights
Save Our Heritage Organisation
WiLDCOAST
 
Press Release
For immediate release: Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Press Conference: Thursday, May 15, 2008, 11 a.m.
 
Press contacts:
John Fanestil: (619) 823-6223 or john@foundation4change.org
Daniel Watman: (619) 954-9710 or dan.watman@gmail.com