A Louder Voice: Activists strategize to stop fence construction

As the No Border Wall Strategies Conference ended Saturday, Southwest Workers Union coordinator Ruben Solis stood before 20 people who had gathered to summarize events planned for almost every day this month.

At his back, a checkerboard of strategies was taped to the wall, outlining a calendar of community dialogue about immigrant rights.

The representatives of border wall protest groups came from across the Rio Grande Valley and had convened at the San Felipe de Jesus Church in Cameron Park to channel their voices into a louder battle cry and stop construction of the federal border fence.

At the conference, protesters characterized the structure as the "Wall of Death."

For months, groups from across the Valley have strategized, demonstrated, walked, talked and facilitated legal disputes of the border fence.

However, a few people gathered Saturday doubted whether any of these efforts have caught attention from the U.S Department of Homeland Security of if the efforts would help deter plans for the fence.

"We have one group on the east side, one on the west side, and yes, we hear each of them a little," said Elizabeth Garcia, cofounder of CASA, the Coalition of Amigos in Solidarity and Action. "We need to create a stronger voice and a space to organize."

To Garcia, the fence is a hot button issue in a larger debate about immigrant rights and solidarity.

Like Garcia, University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College student Mario Garza said that he will continue to make his voice heard even if the fence is built.

"It would be far from over (if the fence were built)," Garza said, who heads up the UTB-TSC Comedy Club that has organized many local protests. "It would just infuriate me more. If they do start building, I'm going to do whatever helps to stop it - sit-ins, whatever."

Regardless of the outcome, participants said the conference was a success.

"There were a lot of good ideas I didn't come here with and I have the energy to go out and work against the border wall," said Greg Rodriguez, a member of the World Peace Alliance in Edinburg. "It's our future, right?"