HASTA LA VISTA CHERTOFF

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FROM EL PASO TO BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS BORDER COMMUNITIES CELEBRATE THE RETIREMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY MICHAEL CHERTOFF

BROWNSVILLE & EL PASO, TX —

On January 10th communities along the Texas border will be throwing Retirement Parties to celebrate the end of Michael Chertoff’s tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security. During his illustrious career, Secretary Chertoff has driven a wall through the borderlands, condemned the property of hundreds of Texas landowners, waived the laws that protect us, imprisoned immigrant families, and set a new low in the response to Hurricane Katrina.

Border residents will gather in Brownsville and El Paso, where Chertoff’s concrete and steel legacy is being erected along the Rio Grande, to remember the man who has done so much to our communities.

“This is not a protest disguised as a party - this is a party. Chertoff has only been Secretary for three years but he has managed to do a tremendous amount of damage. Texas will be glad to see him gone, and it can’t come soon enough,” said Scott Nicol of the No Border Wall Coalition.

In Brownsville Chertoff’s Retirement Party will be held at Galeria 409 starting at 6pm, within spitting distance of the coming border wall. Chertoff’s retirement is like Christmas morning and the day after you get over the flu all wrapped up together..

So the party will blend a corporate retirement party and Carnival. Poets and artists will contribute their thoughts on the man who has so profoundly impacted the border; Ensamble la Mision (and possibly other bands) will play; a retirement cake and piñata will bear his likeness; Chertoff’s Wheel of Fortune; a raffle; and still-President Bush may even stop by to give Chertie a send-off.

“We’re having a party for Michael, but he’s not invited,” said Bill Guerra Addington from No Wall – Big Bend.

At the other end of the state, El Paso’s Chertoff Retirement Party will be held at the Chamizal National Memorial starting at 2pm. The memorial commemorates the harmonious settling of a century-long boundary dispute between the U.S. and Mexico, providing a counter-example to the militarization of the border that Chertoff has worked so diligently to put in place.

Games and the traditional breaking of the Chertoff piñata will greet the dawning of the post-Chertoff era. Galeria 409 is located at 409 E. 13th Street in Brownsville, between Levee and Elizabeth, a block from the Gateway Bridge. Call gallery owner Mark Clark at (956) 455-3599, or Scott Nicol at (956) 532-5983, for information, or email No Border Wall at noborderwall@yahoo.com.

To reach the Chamizal National Memorial near El Paso, from I-10 exit at Hwy 54 and follow the brown Chamizal National Memorialdirectional signs. If traveling south on Hwy 54, take the exit marked Juarez, Mexico, turn right onto Paisano Street, and continue to follow signs towards Chamizal. For more information contact Bill Guerra Addington at (915) 539-4158 or mailto:aguavida%40valornet.com.

Support Granjeno Day

Support Granjeno Day!

Labor Day, Sept. 1, 2008
5:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Public is Invited

GRANJENO CIVIC CENTER
(Downtown Granjeno, take South Shery Rd past the McAllen Trade Zone)

FREE Chicken Barbeque (500)
Hot Dogs and Drinks for the kids (while supply lasts)

They didn't ask for the Border Wall,... but now they have to live with it!

This is an opportunity to show the people that must now LIVE with the BORDER WALL that we support them! It is a chance to hear first hand the effects that the BORDER WALL is already having on the residents of South Texas.

It is a gathering for the residents of Granjeno to tell their personal stories and to document memories of the rich history of their unique community, to tell stories about their families and their ancestral land. It is our opportunity to learn their feelings about what they are now being forced to accept from the United States Government.

Proudly sponsored by the Pharr Community Outreach Project/Shalom and the Resist The Wall Campaign, who will be providing video recording teams for documentary use against the BORDER WALL.

Please attend to help us show them that we support them.

More on Fr.McCauley

Gunderson Lutheran Hospital
Room 3-204
1900 South Avenue
LaCrosse, Wisconsin 54601

He enjoys hearing from friends.

He is getting stronger and working hard at rehab. He may be getting back to you via e-mail. (That's part of his rehab too.) It continues to be a slow process.
Thanks for asking.

Fr. McCauley

Father McCauley
This is to inform you that Fr. McCauley suffered a stroke on June 30th .He is paralyzed on his left side and is in intensive rehab at Gunderson Lutheran Hospital at LaCrosse, Wisconsin.He has a very positive attitude and is hopeful that he will recover, however, his progress is slow and will take a long time.Lois Hackbarth, friend of the familyRochester, Minnesota

NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST THE BORDER WALL

Protest the Border Wall
University of Texas-Pan American
July 12, 2008

What: A protest opposing the Border Wall.

When: Saturday, July 12, 2008 at 5:00 PM

Where: Rally at the University of Texas-Pan American Student Ballroom, located on the Southwest corner of the campus (University Dr & Sugar Rd), next to the University Center.

Parking: No parking permits are required on weekends. There will be plenty of free parking. Parking Lot B-1 is right next to the Student Center/Ballroom.

What to Bring: We have signs, banners and percussion instruments to share, but please feel free to bring your own. Walking shoes, water, strollers and umbrellas are also recommended. Most of all, bring your family and friends!

Event Schedule: Saturday’s activities will begin at 5:00 PM with a RALLY at the Student Ballroom. Our invited speakers will address the crowd from 5:15 until 6:00. We will then march to the Hidalgo County Courthouse Parking Square (corner of Closer and Cano).

At the Courthouse Parking Square, members of the community will have an opportunity to speak out against the border wall. Comments will be videotaped, and a DVD of the comments will be given to the Hidalgo County Commissioners and will be made available to the press.

The Hidalgo County Commissioners, led by Hidalgo County Judge JD Salinas, have allowed incorporating the border wall into the county’s flood control levees. Construction of this levee/border wall is being done during the area's peek hurricane season.

This protest is meant to raise local and national awareness of the vast opposition to the border wall because of its potential to divide border communities, destroy homes and farms, devastate unique ecosystems, damage border economies, and undermine our flood control levees. Also of concern is the impact the border wall will have on the border area’s relationship with Mexico. Many view the border wall as racist because no corresponding wall is being built on the Canadian border.

In Hidalgo County, the border wall is being linked to levee repairs. While no one in the Valley disputes the fact that our levees need repair, allowing the Department of Homeland Security to take them over and make them into a border wall is a terrible idea. There have been no studies on the safety, effectiveness, and environmental impact of a combination levee/border wall.

According to the No Border Wall Coalition, repairing of our levees could require only a few feet of earth and caliche in many places, while the levee/wall project calls for a solid 16-foot wall of concrete, the costs of which will ultimately be borne by Valley taxpayers.

Initial estimates that the levee/border wall would cost $5 million per mile have now ballooned to $12 million per mile. Based on recent bids, Hidalgo County will be responsible for paying over $200 million of the construction costs, rather than the original estimate of $48 million.

Rather than providing flood control, repairing the levees has become a means for the Department of Homeland Security to build piecemeal border walls that do not match up with the sections of our levees that are in need of repair.

The costs go beyond monetary for this region. DHS has initiated condemnation proceedings against hundreds of private landowners along the border. U.S. homes, farms, ranches, and businesses lie either in the path of the wall or on land that will be behind it, cut off from the rest of this country.

Along the Rio Grande, a natural border in and of itself, farmers and ranchers could be prevented from accessing irrigation water. The border wall is set to go through and literally divide the campus of the University of Texas in Brownsville. Firefighters and emergency crews will have difficulty reaching homes and people on the south side of the wall. Our community will be divided, not just from Mexico, but from neighbors and from free access to the river.

The levee-border wall will also do tremendous damage to the environment of the Rio Grande Valley. The first two sections of combined levee/border wall will bisect parts of the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge. They will destroy habitat that is critical to the endangered species and migratory birds, which now brings in over $125 million in ecotourism to this area every year.

Please join our protest!
~Kanickers