As President Trump pushes forward
with his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall, companies competing for the
chance to work on the multi-billion-dollar project are facing mounting
boycotts from local Democratic lawmakers moving to blacklist the border
builders.
Coordinated efforts have been
launched in California, Arizona, Illinois, New York and Rhode Island
that would prohibit cities and towns from doing any official business
with the companies as part of a larger resistance strategy to delay
construction of the controversial wall.
Most recently, Berkeley’s City Council in California
approved an ordinance that would ban it from contracting with companies
involved in the construction.
The proposal, drafted by Mayor Jesse Arreguin and
Councilmembers Ben Bartless, Sophie Hahn and Cheryl Davila, argues that
the wall would harm California’s prosperity.
Arreguin called the border wall a “highly impractical
response to America’s broken immigration system, and a symbol of hatred
that will only further demonize the people of Mexican and Latin American
descent.”
This follows a March measure approved by the council
that would vet contracts to avoid business with border wall-affiliated
companies. Earlier this month, the council expanded the policy to
prohibit investment with companies involved in the “designing, building
or financing” of the wall. The latest ordinance formalizes those rules.
'This is the worst kind of populism.'
“Our divestment policy is a message that we don’t want
to do business with companies that seek to profit off of separating
families, degrading the environment and heightening tensions with
long-time partners such as Mexico,” Arreguin told Fox News.
Berkeley’s new mandate comes on the heels of a similar economic boycott that passed in Oakland last month.
In that case, the Oakland City Council barred the city
from entering into new or amended contracts with companies that work
with the federal government to build the border wall.
Construction, engineering, planning and information
technology businesses are all subject to the ban. So are subcontractors
and financial institutions.
Councilmember Abel Guillen said it is important to put “our dollars where our values are.”
Companies involved in a planned U.S.-Mexico border wall are facing boycotts in several cities.
(AP)
A December committee proposal in Los Angeles -- still
under consideration -- requires anyone wanting to do business with the
city to disclose any bids they have made. However, it does not prohibit
the city from entering into contracts with border builders.
It so happens that some of the cities boycotting these
contractors have the kind of 'sanctuary' policies that the Trump
administration is aggressively fighting.
"It's just amazing to me why any city would not want to rid itself of criminals who are also in the country illegally,"
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said earlier this month.
The Associated General Contractors of America told Fox
News it has gone to the White House and Sessions, asking that they apply
pressure and sue states and localities trying to deny contractors work
based on their involvement building the border wall.
“This is the worst kind of populism,” Brian Turmail,
spokesman for the AGCA, said. “Given the fact that this administration
has been aggressively pursuing sanctuary cities, this seems like an easy
slam dunk.”
He also accuses ambitious state and local lawmakers of
trying to score political points off of contractors and says it sets a
dangerous precedent.
“Today, it’s you don’t like the border wall while
tomorrow you could have an anti-war mayor who refuses to work with
defense contractors,” Turmail said.
At the center of the sanctuary city debate is
California, which has also considered going after border wall companies
at the state level.
Earlier this year, three Democratic state senators
introduced a bill that would require California’s pension funds to
divest from any company involved in building the wall. It would also
require the California Public Employee Retirement System and the
California State Teachers Retirement System to liquidate any investments
in companies that aid in construction.
“This is a wall of shame and we don’t want any part of
it,” Assemblyman Phil Ting said in a written statement. “Californians
build bridges not walls.”
Nearly 100 of the roughly 600 companies interested in bidding on the border project are based in California.
On the East Coast, Rhode Island state Rep. Aaron
Regunberg introduced legislation in May requiring the state divest any
funds from companies involved in Trump’s border wall.
“We’re saying he shouldn’t be creating this symbol of xenophobia and hate using Rhode Island state dollars,” Regunberg said.
During a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump said he
might soon head to San Diego where six construction companies have built
eight border wall prototypes for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“I may be going there very shortly to look at them in their final form,” Trump told members of his Cabinet.
It remains unclear when the wall might actually go up.
Trump campaigned on building it and set an ambitious timetable for
construction. But aside from potential funding and political
complications, there have been court challenges from geologists.
Critics also say the barrier would be ineffective and
costly. On the campaign trail, Trump said Mexico would pay for the bill.
That’s not happening. He also said the cost to build the wall would be
$4 billion. Estimates have ranged wildly, but have since soared as high
as $70 billion, though the actual cost is not clear.
