AZMEX POLICY 6-6-18

AZMEX POLICY 6 JUN 2018

Comment: A secure border bad for "business"?
"are a safe and welcoming area". For who?
Thx


Patagonia council votes to create anti-border wall resolution
By Arielle Zionts
Nogales International May 14, 2018 Updated Jun 5, 2018 (3)

https://www.nogalesinternational.com/the_bulletin/news/patagonia-council-votes-to-create-anti-border-wall-resolution/article_f9bd0810-57d5-11e8-96e9-db82a9430555.html

Border
Vehicle barriers and a monument mark the U.S.-Mexico border in the San Rafael Valley, south of Patagonia. The Patagonia Town Council has voted to create a resolution against building a wall between the United States and Mexico.
File photo by Jonathan Clark


Patagonia joined other Arizona and Southwest municipalities as a "no border wall" community when the town council voted 3-2 last month to create a resolution against building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The narrow vote came after a long, sometimes heated, discussion and debate among the public and councilmembers, according to a recording of the council's April 25 meeting. Vice-Mayor Andrea Wood and Councilmembers Michael Stabile and Melissa Murrietta voted for the resolution, while Mayor Ike Isakson and Councilman Ron Reibslager voted against it.

Though the council voted to approve a resolution opposing the wall, no specific resolution was adopted, said Isabel Van Nest, deputy town clerk. She said a specific text may be chosen at a later meeting.

Those in support of the resolution argued it will send a positive message to Mexico and tourists that Patagonia and its nearby borderlands are a safe and welcoming area.

"We have a duty and a responsibility to justly represent the reality of life in the borderlands to the millions of people in our nation who don't know what it's like to actually live here," said India Aubry of Voices From the Border, a Patagonia-based grassroots social and environmental justice group.

Resolution supporters also said a wall through the San Rafael Valley to the south of Patagonia – which is mostly marked by vehicle barriers and barbed wire fence – would harm the environment and push ( illegal ) migrants into more dangerous terrain.

Some of those who shared their support for the resolution were out-of-towners, including a Sierra Club staffer, an activist from Nogales and Santa Cruz County Sheriff Antonio Estrada.

Those opposed to the resolution said the Patagonia Town Council isn't the place to discuss a political issue like the border wall that President Donald Trump has vowed to build between the United States and Mexico.

"It's a political agenda that people are trying to push because it's making their feelings feel better," said resident Aaron Schreiber.
Schreiber argued that some tourists, like car and biker groups, may not want to visit the town anymore if the council passes the resolution. He also asked why those in support of the resolution weren't concerned about the trash that migrants leave in the canyons near Patagonia.

Before the vote, Isakson suggested that a ballot referendum, rather than the town council, was the more appropriate venue for a vote on whether or not Patagonia supports a border wall.

"I don't think it's the place for this council to make a statement for the entire town about this situation," he said.
"It's important to be supportive of who your neighbors are and if we accepted the resolution, I don't see what the negative impact would be," Wood said.

Dozens of regional and national organizations, and more than 30 municipalities in California, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona – including Tucson, Pima County and the Tohono O'odham Nation – have supported an anti-border wall resolution, according to noborderwalls.org. The Tempe City Council recently rejected a resolution by a narrow margin.

Some of the resolutions are largely symbolic, with the municipality saying they are against a border wall, while others have more teeth, saying they will not hire contractors who work on the wall. Wood said she wants the town's lawyer to write a resolution that is symbolic, not one that calls for a boycott.

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