BORDERLANDS: Good, Bad & Ugly
Change-making is often most effective when it is approached strategically, by applying the right kind of pressure in the right places. For border policy, the right place is Congress, and especially certain members of Congress who have the most sway in border policy. Here are some leaders, good, bad and ugly who need to hear from the voters.
The first miles of border wall were built in the 1990s by Democratic President Bill Clinton. There have been four key votes in Congress relating to the US-Mexico border wall over the past decade: The Secure Fence Act (2006), The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (2013), and the 2018 and 2019 federal budgets. Each one has had bipartisan support. Find out more about these bills and how your Members of Congress Voted.
Most members of the US Congress have a checkered record when it comes to support of border wall. But some members stand out as either consistent supporters or steadfast opponents of border wall. We’ve put together a short list of key actors in theater of border wall funding. They are our borderlands’ Good, Bad, and Ugly.
The GOOD
SENATOR KAMALA HARRIS
California Senator Kamala Harris has spoken out against border wall construction, as many Democrats have, but she has also consistently voted against funding for walls. She voted against the 2018 and 2019 budgets, and spoke in opposition to a January 2018 proposal by Senator Chuck Schumer to give Donald Trump $25 billion in wall funding. Sen. Harris has also consistently spoken out against inhumane militarization of border communities and inhuman treatment of migrants. She is a border state senator and a presidential candidate, and therefore has significant opportunity to protect the borderlands region.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Let Senator Harris know you support her opposition to border wall and ask her to raise her voice for the people and wildlife of the region. Send her a postcard, call her office, tag her on social media.
WHAT YOU CAN SAY:
1. Thank you for opposing funding for border walls and for supporting human rights for migrants and borderlands communities.
2. Ask her to continue voting against wall funding AND to make the border wall a key issue in the current presidential race.
Contact info:
Address: 112 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510;
Phone: (202) 224-3553
Social Media: T/F/I: @KamalaHarris
Congressman Raul Grijalva
Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva has been fighting border wall since the Secure Fence Act was passed in 2006. He introduced the first legislation to stop wall construction and to restore the force of environmental law to the border (it was stripped under the Real Id Act of 2005). Rep. Grijalva voted against the Secure Fence Act and the 2018 and 2019 budgets that contained wall funding. In early 2019, when the Democrats took over leadership of the House of Representatives, Rep. Grijalva took over as Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. He now has significant opportunity to introduce bills, hold hearings, and elevate discourse about the destructive impacts of border walls on our national parks, national wildlife refuges and other ecosystem reserves on the border.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Let Congressman Grijalva know you support his opposition to border wall and his efforts to protect the wildlife and people of the borderlands. Send him a postcard, call his office, tag him on social media.
WHAT YOU CAN SAY:
1. Thank you for opposing funding for border walls and for supporting protection of borderlands communities.
2. Ask him to keep fighting.
Contact info:
Address: 1511 Longworth House Office Building, Washington DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2435
Social Media: T/F/I: @RepRaulGrijalva / @Rep.Grijalva / RepRaulGrijalva
The BAD
California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi
Representative Pelosi voted for approximately $3 billion in border wall funding contained in the 2018 and 2019 budget bills. As Speaker of the House, she holds significant power, the power to sway many Democrats thinking on border policy. After she voted for the wall funding in the 2018 budget, she turned to semantics and claimed victory over Trump, saying, “the funding was only for fences not walls.” In reality, they are the same thing: 20-30 feet of concrete and steel. In early 2019, pressed by the new House progressives elected in Nov. 2018, Speaker Pelosi blocked passage of border wall funding, leading to the longest shutdown of the government in US history. But in the end she gave in and handed $1.3 billion more to President Trump to continue wall construction.
Speaker Pelosi holds a position of outsized power on this issue. We need your help strengthening her resolve against a border wall.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Let Speaker Pelosi know you are opposed to border wall and let her know that you know she voted for it in 2018 and 2019 budgets. Send her a postcard, call her office, tag her on social media.
WHAT YOU CAN SAY:
1. Tell her why you are opposed to a border wall and why she should be too.
2. Tell her you want her to stop funding border barriers and instead work to protect borderlands wildlife and people.
Contact info:
Address: 1236 Longworth House Office Building, Washington DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4965
Social Media: T/F/I: @SpeakerPelosi / @NancyPelosi / @SpeakerPelosi
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen
Senator Van Hollen has consistently voted for border wall funding, not only as a senator, but as a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee that drafts budget bills. Senator Van Hollen supported S744 in 2013 as well as both the 2018 and 2019 budgets. But even worse, after those budgets passed Van Hollen’s office claimed that they did not contain money for walls. When constituents called and expressed anger over Senator Van Hollen’s support of wall funding, they were told the bills did not contain money for border wall construction. Like Speaker Pelosi, he was playing a game of semantics, suggesting that a 20 foot high fence is altogether different than a 20 foot high wall. As a Democratic party leader and member of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Van Hollen has a responsibility to speak honestly about his support for border barriers. He also has an opportunity to help halt the ever-expanding policy of border militarization and divisive border walls.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Let Senator Van Hollen know you are opposed to border barriers and militarization and let him know that you know he voted for it in the 2018 and 2019 budgets. Send him a postcard, call his office, tag him on social media.
WHAT YOU CAN SAY:
1. Tell him why you are opposed to a border wall, border fence and any other name for border barriers. Tell him why he should be too.
2. Tell him to block border barrier funding in the Appropriations Committee and on the Senate floor and to stop ongoing border barrier construction.
Contact info:
Address: 110 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4654
Social Media: T/F/I: @ChrisVanHollen
The UGLY
New York Senator Chuck Schumer
Senator Schumer has supported border wall construction for more than a decade, despite publicly stating his opposition to a border wall. He has used borderlands people and wildlife as bargaining chips for other political priorities. Senator Schumer voted yes on the Secure Fence Act and the 2018 and 2019 budgets that contained border wall funding–and like many other Democrats he claimed that there was no border wall funding in those budget bills. But Senator Schumer was also the architect of several attempts to provide tens of billions of additional dollars in border wall funding, including what was called the “border surge” in the 2013 immigration bill (S744), and more recently a $25 billion deal with President Trump to trade wall funding for other priorities. (Neither of these deals were ultimately successful. But if they had been, the entire border would be walled off).
As the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Schumer sets the agenda for Democrats and most Democrats will follow his lead. He wields tremendous power on borderlands issues, and it is not a stretch to say that if he opposed border wall construction over the past decade, we simply would not have a border wall.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Let Senator Schumer know you are angry about his longstanding support for border barrier funding. Ask him what he is going to do to stop border wall construction. Send him a postcard, call his office, tag him on social media.
WHAT YOU CAN SAY:
1. Tell him why you are opposed to a border wall and how frustrated you are that he and other Democrats have supported it.
2. Tell him to stop voting for funding, and take every measure to stop ongoing border barrier construction.
Contact info:
Address: 322 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-6542
Social Media: T/F/I: @SenSchumer / @SenSchumer / @ChuckSchumer
South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham
Like Senator Chuck Schumer, Senator Graham has voted for border wall funding at every opportunity, but he has also been a crutch for the hateful, destructive border agenda of President Donald Trump in the Senate. Senator Graham voted for the Secure Fence Act, the “border surge” in the 2013 Immigration Act, and the 2018 and 2019 budgets. He and Senator Schumer, as longtime leaders in the Senate have the power to grind border wall construction to a halt.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Let Senator Graham know you are opposed to border barriers and militarization and let him know you are aware of his voting record in favor of border barriers. Send him a postcard, call his office, tag him on social media.
WHAT YOU CAN SAY:
1. Tell him why you are opposed to a border wall and why he should be too.
2. Tell him to block border barrier funding and to stop ongoing border barrier construction.
Contact info:
Address: 290 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-5972
Social Media: T/F/I: @LindseyGrahamSC
The NASTY
We won’t waste our breath on the current president. You know what to do.