And
so it begins.
The surveyor's stakes
marking the 150 ft “clearing zone” for
Trump’s Border Fence appeared at the
National Butterfly Center in Mission, TX, on
Thursday, July 20, along with a work crew
with chainsaws and heavy equipment.
 When
Marianna Trevino Wright, executive director
of the nonprofit center confronted them, the
crew explained they were hired by the
Department of Homeland Security Customs and
Border Protection to remove trees and brush
along a 1.2 mile road from the levee to the
Rio Grande River; this is a private road, on
private property, held by the North American
Butterfly Association. About halfway down
the road lay a big, white X marking the spot
where engineers had taken a core soil sample
to determine the suitability of this place
for construction.
‘Bugs vs.
Americans. Bugs lose.’
One short-sighted
commentator’s glib response to the situation
summarizes part of the ignorance surrounding
everything at stake here. This isn’t all
about the butterflies.
No permission was
requested to enter the property or begin
cutting down trees. The center was not
notified of any roadwork, nor given the
opportunity to review, negotiate or deny the
workplan. Same goes for the core sampling
of soils on the property, and the surveying
and staking of a “clear zone” that will
bulldoze 200,000 square feet of habitat for
protected species like the Texas Tortoise
and Texas Indigo, not to mention about 400
species of birds. The federal government
had decided it will do as it pleases with
our property, swiftly and secretly, in spite
of our property rights and right to due
process under the law.
Why should you
care?
-
If you own
property or value your Constitutional
right to due process, you should be very
concerned about the government doing
entering property without permission or
due process. Altering it. Destroying it.
Coming onto it and killing creatures
that live there with reckless
indifference. Your home or property
could be next.
-
If you think the
“Border Fence” will stop illegal
immigration, you are mistaken. The fence
has gates and gaps every mile or so
where people can pass through; so the
fence is actually a FUNNEL, designed to
direct those crossing into our country
to areas where Border Patrol agents may
more easily monitor and intercept
traffic—that is, unless people use
ladders or scale the fence on their own,
which they do.
-
If you pay taxes,
you should understand the Border Fence
is not a solution to the problem of
illegal immigration. It is a waste of
tax dollars.
 In
this 38-mile length of fence the Trump
Administration seeks to build, more than
30 million square feet of vegetation may
be cleared. Some of this will be
private land, such as ours, but some of it
will be public land, like the Santa Ana
National Wildlife Refuge and Bentsen-Rio
Grande Valley State Park. These are YOUR
lands.
These lands hold our
history as a nation; our cultural history
and natural history. They are home to our
natural treasures and, in many cases, the
last foothold for endangered species, like
the Ocelot.
For this reason, the
National Butterfly Center is taking a stand.
We are joining dozens of private property
owners in taking legal action against the
efforts of the federal government to deprive
us of our property rights.
If the federal
government succeeds in tossing due process
and usurping private property rights, all
Americans lose.
PLEASE JOIN
US!
You can stand with us
by contributing to our Legal
Defense Fund or by joining
the National Butterfly Center,
today.
The National Butterfly
Center is a nonprofit environmental
conservation and education project of the
North American Butterfly Center. Members
receive admission to the property, discounts
on purchases in our gift shop and native
plant nursery, and reciprocal admission
benefits to almost 300 botanical gardens
across the United States through our
participation in the American Horticultural
Association’s RAP. Members also
receive NECTAR, our monthly e-newsletter.
Please help us
preserve this land and the precious
habitat and wildlife it contains!
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