Activists Try to Halt Border Wall Construction as Contractors Bulldoze Landmarks

In Texas, bulldozers have rolled into Big Bend National Park to tear down portions of the environmental landmark as part of the Trump administration’s $46.5 billion effort to expand a massive border wall and other security infrastructure along the border with Mexico. Protesters gathered Thursday at Big Bend seeking to block construction of the wall, after the Department of Homeland Security waived requirements that federal contractors comply with a broad slate of environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act. Meanwhile, in southern Arizona, a protest camp predominantly led by queer and femme activists in the small border town of Lochiel is seeking to protect ancient cottonwood trees, as federal contractors race to build another portion of Trump’s border barrier with Mexico at a cost of about a half a billion dollars. At the center of the protest camp is a 200-year-old cottonwood known as a “grandmother” tree. www.democracynow.org