July 18, 2020
Rincon Group / Our Blogs / BorderLands / . . .
Dear AZ Groups ~
I wanted to share these images from local folks in Arivaca, AZ. This is Fisher Industries' $1.3 billion controversial contract. Fisher is the contractor that recently built 3 miles of privately-funded border wall that is already beginning to slip into the Rio Grande in South Texas (see article by ProPublica).Areas impacted include the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge and the Coronado National Forest. In my opinion, this will be the most damaging wall segment ever built, decimating the canyons and mountains between Nogales and Sasabe. Sycamore Canyon and the Pajarita and Atascosa Mountains are a few examples. Blasting, new roads, and walls up and down sheer cliffs. So far they've tackled mostly flat areas, but the video of the bulldozer is in the Pozo Verde Mountains sacred to the O'odham people.
Fisher is also walling off the western portion of Cabeza Prieta NWR for another $400M (that's the contract under investigation for improper procurement. The Trump administration, for the first time ever, waived about a dozen procurement laws before then awarding Fisher the $1.3B. It is corruption at its worst and slimeyest...).Attached is a map of the wall projects, Tucson B and C, that are impacting the Nogales-Sasabe area. Two maps are CBP's official version, and another is a map we made based on the coordinates given in official court documents. We are still sorting through this stuff.Please note that portions of Tucson 5, being built as part of a ballooning $1.8B contract to Kiewit Construction's fake subsidiary "Southwest Valley Constructors," also will harm the area between Sasabe and Nogales, according to the information we have now.
~ Dan Millis
he/him/his
Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter
Borderlands Program Manager
Rincon Group / Our Blogs / BorderLands / . . .