Gary

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Money for Hospital Beds, Not Trump’s Wall

On February 27, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, unveiled a bill that had the potential to positively affect the lives of millions of Americans. It was intended to immediately divert money from President Donald Trump’s border wall to the U.S. response to the coronavirus. At the time, we could only guess how badly such funds would be needed. Now, more than a month later, public health officials have informed New York Governor Andrew Cuomo that a minimum of 140,000 hospital beds and 40,000 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds will be needed by April 15 in his state alone to deal with the predicted peak of COVID-19.

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Order of Ecumenical Franciscans for the House Committee on Appropriations and its Subcommittee on Homeland Security

I am writing to ask that you rescind all Department of Defense and Treasury fundsfor building more of the border wall.My name is Gary Paul Nabhan and I am an Ecumenical Franciscan Brother whohas lived and worked on the U.S./Mexico border as a seasonal park ranger, farmer,conservational biologist and facilitator of interfaith and intertribal gatherings since 1978.

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Indigenous Religious Freedom Violations Abound at the U.S.-Mexico Border Barriers

This last year, we have palpably felt a heightened level of traumatic stress pervasive in the Indigenous communities where all three of us have worked on both sides of the international boundary. Throughout our adult lives, we have provided educational opportunities, technical assistance, and land rights advocacy strategies within the many Indigenous communities that live within 100 miles or so from the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Indigenous group reaffirms importance of Quitobaquito Springs amid border wall construction

Members of the Tohono O’odham Nation reaffirmed the modern relevancy of a sacred site in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument impacted by border wall construction.

A group of Tohono O’odham, Hia C-ed O’odham, Pascua Yaqui and their non-Indigenous allies gathered, Sunday, March 8, beside the pond fed by Quitobaquito Springs to discuss how building the border wall and pumping local groundwater to make cement is harming the area cherished by the local Indigenous peoples.

Marlene Vazquez is a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation. She said she regularly visits Quitobaquito Springs, but she’s seen the landscape change to the recent changes.