Feb 25, 2021
by
av福利社 Heritage Conservation Committee
PDF Version
Society of Architectural Historians
Heritage Conservation Committee
The Society of Architectural Historians (av福利社) expresses strong opposition to the continued construction of the border wall along the United States’ border with Mexico, and calls for the immediate removal of portions built in culturally sensitive areas.
Background
Created in the wake of 9/11, the Section 102 of the REAL ID act of 2005 granted to the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) the broad power to “waive in their entirety” dozens of federal, state, and local laws deemed to stand in the way of national security. The most aggressive application of this waiver has been to accelerate construction of the US – Mexico border wall, by shielding it from public review. Among the 48 federal laws documented by the Sierra Club to have been waived for construction of the southern border wall are the National Environmental Policy Act [NEPA], the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, National Historic Preservation Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Clean Air Act, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, the Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act, the Antiquities Act, the Historic Sites, Buildings, and Antiquities Act, the National Park Service Organic Act, the National Park Service General Authorities Act, the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978 [Sections 401(7), 403, and 404], the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, and the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act.
The waiver has been used to suspend laws that protect the rights of all citizens (such as the Environmental Protection Act) as well as those of America’s indigenous tribal communities. As well, in Arizona most construction is taking place on public land in the complete absence of public disclosure and consultation. To invoke a vague threat to public safety as an excuse to trample the rights of Native and non-Native citizens alike is, at best, completely disingenuous and not befitting a truly democratic society.
Issue
The US – Mexico border wall has been constructed during the last four years in locations of tenuous connection to border security, using the REAL ID waiver to barrel through previously protected and often culturally sensitive land. These sections of the border wall provide dubious improvements to border security—which could be managed by non-physical means including drone photography—while irrevocably damaging culturally sensitive lands.
Communities impacted by the construction of the border wall include 26 federally recognized Native American nations in the US and eight Indigenous groups in Mexico. The border wall cuts through tribal homelands, and not only separates tribal members from their relatives but separates them from their sacred sites. In addition, the border wall divides these communities from the natural environment, damaging their members’ ability to make a living and degrading their cultural and religious identity.
To prevent current and future obstacles to free travel for Native Americans in the US, and Indigenous Peoples in Mexico, the US Congress passed the Texas Band of Kickapoo Act of 1983 that allowed “all members of t
