Woman commits first act of civil disobedience against U.S.-Mexican Border Wall!

In an effort to defend the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park, Judy Ackerman arrived at the border wall worksite at 6:30 AM December 18 and stood in the construction path, delaying work for hours before her arrest. The park, a protected natural area, lies adjacent to the Rio Grande River in El Paso, Texas. Ackerman, 55 years old, is a Sierra Club member, a founder of Friends of the Rio Bosque and a retired Army sergeant major.

Conservationists assert that the 15-foot, steel-mesh border wall will upset the park's ecological balance. After ten years of restoration, it is currently one of the few places where one can imagine the El Paso area when the river wound freely through the mountains and desert and had ample flow to support rich wetlands and big cottonwood trees. But the Border wall will cut off Rio Bosque from the river, preventing the movement of species and severely limiting the park's value as habitat.

Activists who mobilize against the wall's construction here for a variety of reasons have formed a coalition to heighten public awareness and prevent expansion of the wall. Ackerman's act, the first civil disobedience committed against the wall, reportedly prompted discussion among public officials who had to determine the appropriate jurisdiction to prosecute the offense. In the end Texas Department of Public Safety Troopers removed Ackerman, who was arrested on a charge of criminal trespass, a state misdemeanor.

Ironically, although Ackerman was arraigned, under the Real ID Act neither she nor anyone else may use the courts to challenge the border wall, regardless of the damage it causes or its potential dangers. Homeland Security Secretary Michael ChertoffMichael Chertoff’s waiver swept aside our legal right to demand in court that the government obey its own laws, including environmental laws painstakingly put in place over decades.