WASHINGTON – Congressmen Vicente Gonzalez (TX-15) and Filemon Vela (TX-34) issued the following statement on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 funding agreement:
“I can tell you one thing – this deal does not feel like a victory for those who actually live on the U.S.-Mexico Border,” Congressman Gonzalez said. “Allowing 55 miles of physical barriers in the Rio Grande Valley is providing the President and his Administration their own caravan of influence over the power of the purse. I thank the Conference Committee for its efforts to protect the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, the National Butterfly Center, and Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. These are just some of our region’s many sacred spaces. I am disappointed to see South Texans’ private property rights and perspectives discarded and disregarded. I have personally visited with the President to promote border security alternatives and explain the safety – backed by FBI statistics – of communities like McAllen, Texas. This has yet to be acknowledged by him or his Administration. Therefore, I could not support this package.”
“The FY19 funding package amounts to the third down payment on President Trump’s border wall,” said Rep. Vela. “By passing this agreement, Congress will have provided this Administration with nearly $3.3 billion for its border wall scheme since FY17.”
Representative Vela added, “although I appreciate the effort to include language to exempt the Ocelot Coastal Corridor, the SpaceX launch site, and to continue the exemption for the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, these exclusions are of small consolation to all of the parties who will be affected by the 55 miles in newly funded fencing. The trampling of private property rights, the destructive isolation of historic family cemetery sites, and the erosion of other environmentally precious and unprotected lands will have a long-term devastating impact on our border communities. The rest of our border communities are just as important as the presumably protected sites and also deserve to be protected. That is why I voted no on this package.”
Jamie Rappaport Clark, President and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, added, “we thank Representative Vela for his tireless efforts to protect this portion of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, which is vital for the survival and recovery of endangered ocelots in the United States. We continue to urge lawmakers to add protections for the entirety of the refuge which contains some of the most important and biodiverse habitat in the nation. Wall or barriers of any kind built on any part of the refuge would irreparably damage the landscape and would harm hundreds of species, including 15 protected under the Endangered Species Act.”
