Trump’s Border Wall Caused Major Cultural And Environmental Harm, Watchdog Finds

Chris D'Angelo
Thu, September 7, 2023

The construction of former President Donald Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border desecrated Indigenous cultural sites, hurt wildlife, destroyed vegetation, dried up key water resources, exacerbated the risk of flooding and triggered erosion that has left mountain slopes “unstable and at risk of collapse,” according to a new report.  

The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan government watchdog, reviewed federal data and interviewed government officials, Native American tribes and stakeholders over the course of two years. The result is a comprehensive look at the widespread cultural and environmental harm — much of which experts had predicted — that came from Trump’s relentless pursuit of what he called a “big, beautiful wall” along the southern U.S. border.

The Trump administration spent an estimated $15 billion constructing more than 400 miles of border wall, much of which replaced smaller existing barriers. It waived numerous environmental laws along the way. Trump had insisted during his campaign that Mexico would foot the bill for the construction, but Mexico never paid a dime. 

Laiken Jordahl, a conservation advocate at the left-leaning Center for Biological Diversity who documents environmental damage in the borderlands, told HuffPost the report “confirms all our worst fears about the damage wall construction has inflicted” on wildlife, public lands and cultural resources.

Among other things, construction of the wall fragmented wildlife habitats, cut off species’ migration routes and destroyed ancient cacti and other native vegetation.

“These border walls haven’t done a thing to address immigration or smuggling, but they did drive endangered species closer to extinction, butcher thousands of iconic saguaro cacti and dynamite Indigenous sacred sites and burial grounds,” Jordahl said. “This is a clear warning that any attempt to build additional miles of border walls would be a horrifically destructive and useless folly.”

A hill at Coronado National Monument in Hereford, Arizona, was blasted for border wall construction on Sept. 22, 2022.

A hill at Coronado National Monument in Hereford, Arizona, was blasted for border wall construction on Sept. 22, 2022.

The federal audit notably follows a federal judge ordering Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Wednesday to remove floating buoys from the Rio Grande — a barrier that, like Trump’s wall, was meant to deter migrants from crossing the border and that has raised strikingly similar environmental and humanitarian concerns.

Citing information gathered from numerous unidentified federal and tribal officials, the GAO concluded that Trump’s wall negatively impacted cultural and natural resources alike. 

“From the start, President Trump’s border wall was nothing more than a symbolic message of hate, aimed at vilifying migrants and bolstering extreme MAGA rhetoric,” Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who in 2021 requested the GAO look into the wall’s environmental impacts, said in a statement responding to the report. “This racist political stunt has been an ineffective waste of billions of American taxpayers’ dollars — and now we know it has caused immeasurable, irreparable harm to our environment and cultural heritage as well.”

In Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a UNESCO biosphere reserve in southern Arizona that is home to numerous endangered species, contractors bulldozed and blasted land in order to expand an existing patrol road. The work damaged portions of Monument Hill, which is home to cultural and burial sites sacred to the Tohono O’odham and other Native American tribes.

At nearby Quitobaquito Springs, an oasis in the Sonoran Desert that is sacred to the Tohono O’odham people, tribal leaders told the GAO that contractors cleared a large area and destroyed a burial site that the tribal nation had hoped to protect. 

“Tribal and agency officials and four of the five stakeholders we interviewed told us that some projects caused significant damage and destruction to cultural resources, including historic sites and sites sacred to Tribes,” the report states. “Tohono O’odham Nation officials explained that damage and destruction to such sites is often irreparable because it can disrupt or end rites revered or cherished by specific cultural groups.”

Border wall construction at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Lukeville, Arizona, on Jan. 7, 2020.

Border wall construction at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Lukeville, Arizona, on Jan. 7, 2020.

Construction has severely affected water resources. In San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, an artesian well “no longer naturally flows to the surface” and “now requires mechanical pumps to maintain water pressure,” the report notes, citing information gathered from a stakeholder. “Moreover, some ponds in the refuge are now void of water, which makes it difficult to maintain water levels in other ponds that have threatened and endangered fish species,” it reads. 

Officials with the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management highlighted the increased risk of flooding in certain areas as newly constructed roads have blocked the natural flow of water. 

Perhaps the wall’s biggest environmental impact is on animals and plants along the border. 

As the report details, barriers have restricted the movement of numerous species, including the endangered Sonoran pronghorn and Mexican gray wolf. In Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, towering border fences have “fragmented the endangered ocelot’s habitat” and “severed the animal’s travel corridors across the border” — consequences that a joint agreement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection found to have “substantially elevated the risks of the ocelot’s extinction in the U.S.,” the GAO report notes.

One of the more dramatic scenes to play out along the border during Trump’s tenure was construction workers cutting down ancient, protected saguaro cacti — a clearing effort that the report notes allowed for invasive species to take hold. Pictures at the time showed giant, thorny cacti toppled and limbs discarded on the side of dirt roads.

The Tohono O’odham Nation viewed the destruction as a cultural assault as well as an environmental one. 

“The Tohono O’odham Nation officials explained that the saguaro is significant to O’odham culture and livelihood, as the saguaro provides an important fruit source and is a sacred plant to be given utmost respect, as a relative,” the report reads.

A dead cactus lies near the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on Feb. 13, 2020.

A dead cactus lies near the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on Feb. 13, 2020.

Then there’s “significant erosion” stemming from contractors slicing through remote mountains and building roads and construction staging areas. Steep slopes were left “unstable and at risk of collapse” and “incomplete erosion control measures along the barrier and patrol roads threatened the integrity of the barrier system itself,” according to the report.

In Arizona’s Pajarito Mountains in the Coronado National Forest, clearing vegetation for one staging area caused the soil to erode. A Forest Service official told the GAO the entire mountainside is now at risk of collapse. 

Jordahl called the GAO’s findings “horribly devastating.” 

“The description of damage to sacred sites and burial grounds is jarring,” he said via email. “The description of wall construction permanently damaging the artesian well system that feeds spring habitats that sustain endangered species at the San Bernardino National Wildlife [R]efuge is horrifying. This could ultimately lead to the extinction of the endemic species that live there. The parts about severe erosion concerns are also sobering.”

The report, he said, “shows the dire need for mitigation and restoration, and ultimately, the need to tear down the wall where it blocks important migration routes for endangered species like jaguars, ocelots and Sonoran pronghorn.”

In interviews with the GAO, officials at CBP and other agencies blamed some of the negative impacts on President Joe Biden’s proclamation in 2021 that halted border wall construction, which they said prevented work to install road culverts and revegetate cleared areas. 

The report notes that CBP and the Interior Department have agreed to GAO’s recommendations, including working collaboratively on a strategy for mitigating border wall impacts. 

The Interior Department declined to comment on the findings. CBP pointed HuffPost to the report, which includes the agency’s response that it concurs with the GAO’s recommendations.

The first experiment to produce oxygen on another planet has come to an end

Ashley Strickland, CNN
Thu, September 7, 2023 

The first experiment to produce oxygen on another planet has come to an end on Mars after exceeding NASA’s initial goals and demonstrating capabilities that could help future astronauts explore the red planet.

The microwave-size device called MOXIE, or Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, is on the Perseverance rover.

The experiment kicked off more than two years ago, a few months after the rover landed on Mars. Since then, MOXIE has generated 122 grams of oxygen, equal to what a small dog breathes in 10 hours, according to NASA. The instrument works by converting some of Mars’ plentiful carbon dioxide into oxygen.

During the peak of its efficiency, MOXIE produced 12 grams of oxygen an hour at 98% purity or better, which is twice as much as NASA’s goals for the instrument. On August 7, MOXIE operated for the 16th and final time, having completed all its requirements.

“We’re proud to have supported a breakthrough technology like MOXIE that could turn local resources into useful products for future exploration missions,” said Trudy Kortes, director of technology demonstrations, Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters, in a statement. “By proving this technology in real-world conditions, we’ve come one step closer to a future in which astronauts ‘live off the land’ on the Red Planet.”

MOXIE implications

The thin Martian atmosphere is 96% carbon dioxide, which isn’t much help to oxygen-breathing humans. MOXIE works by dividing up carbon dioxide molecules, which include one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. It separates out the oxygen molecules and emits carbon monoxide as a waste product. As the gases move through the instrument, its system analyzes the purity and quantity of the oxygen.

Heat-tolerant materials, such as a coating of gold and aerogel, were used to make the instrument since this conversion process requires temperatures reaching 1,470 degrees Fahrenheit (798 degrees Celsius). These materials kept the heat from radiating out and damaging any aspect of the rover
.

Engineers installed MOXIE inside the chassis of the Perseverance rover in 2019. - NASA/JPL-Caltech

Something that can convert carbon dioxide into oxygen efficiently could help in more ways than one. Bigger and better versions of something such as MOXIE in the future could supply life support systems with breathable air and convert and store oxygen needed for rocket fuel used to launch on a return trip to Earth.

“MOXIE’s impressive performance shows that it is feasible to extract oxygen from Mars’ atmosphere — oxygen that could help supply breathable air or rocket propellant to future astronauts,” NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said in a statement. “Developing technologies that let us use resources on the Moon and Mars is critical to build a long-term lunar presence, create a robust lunar economy, and allow us to support an initial human exploration campaign to Mars.”

Transporting thousands of pounds of rocket propellant and oxygen on the initial trip from Earth to Mars would be incredibly difficult and expensive and would mean less room on the spacecraft for other necessities. Technology such as MOXIE could help astronauts essentially live off the land and utilize the resources from their surroundings.

Lessons learned from the small MOXIE experiment can now be used to create a full-scale system that includes an oxygen generator that can also liquefy and store the oxygen.

But the next major step in the process is to test other technologies on Mars that could further exploration, like tools and habitat materials.

“We have to make decisions about which things need to be validated on Mars,” said Michael Hecht, MOXIE principal investigator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a statement. “I think there are many technologies on that list; I’m very pleased MOXIE was first.”

Photos show European satellite tumbling to its fiery doom after a first-of-a-kind maneuver that prevented a lot of space trash and falling debris on Earth

Grace Eliza Goodwin,Maiya Focht
Fri, September 8, 2023 

Aeolus was the first satellite to study winds on Earth at a global scale.European Space Agency

Photos show a European satellite tumbling to its doom before burning up in Earth's atmosphere.


The European Space Agency performed a first-of-a-kind maneuver on the satellite as it deorbited.


ESA said the maneuver reduced the risk of dangerous space debris impact and space junk collision.

The European Space Agency released photos showing its Aeolus satellite tumbling to a fiery death as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere at a blazing 16,700 mph.

The Aeolus satellite was launched to space in 2018. It was the first satellite with powerful laser technology capable of observing wind on a global scale.

Over its 5-year mission, Aeolus improved weather forecasts and climate models, according to ESA. But Aeolus retired in July, at which point it went from a cutting-edge satellite to mere space junk.

The Aeolus satellite burning up as it falls over Antarctica.

Fraunhofer FHR/European Space Agency

When nearby satellites are no longer useful, they usually fall out of orbit, back to Earth, and burn up in our planet's atmosphere, according to NASA.

That is, indeed, what happened with Aeolus but in a more controlled way than is typical.

ESA took Aeolus's end as an opportunity to try a first-of-a-kind reentry maneuver called an "assisted reentry," ESA said in a statement Tuesday.
How assisted reentries could make satellite decommissioning safer

The assisted reentry maneuver involved a series of deorbits, where the satellite inched closer and closer to Earth, but remained in orbit.

This let ESA accurately map where the satellite would ultimately reenter Earth's atmosphere, helping to reduce the risk of any debris that didn't completely burn up from landing near any populated area.

Ultimately, ESA calculated the satellite would renter and burn up over Antarctica, far from any populated areas. About 80% of the satellite burned up and 20% survived reentry, per Space.com.

Map showing Aeolus satellite's location as it inched closer to Earth where it ultimately burned up over Antarctica.

European Space Agency

"By turning Aeolus's natural, uncontrolled reentry into an assisted one, and choosing the best reentry orbit, the already very small risk from any surviving fragments landing near populated areas was made a further 150 times less risky," ESA said.

Moreover, the assisted reentry approach meant "the time during which Aeolus was left uncontrolled in orbit was shortened by a few weeks, limiting the risk of collision with other satellites in this vital space highway," ESA said in the statement.
More space junk, more risk, more action needed

There were over 6,000 active, working satellites in orbit as of 2022, compared to just under 1,000 in 2010. This means there's more risk of satellites crashing into one another, and that space debris flying to inhabited places on Earth.

Though no one has ever been severely harmed by space debris, the risk is real and growing greater as more satellites enter Earth's orbit, ESA said.

Space debris that landed in Texas.NASA

The more traffic there is up there, the more likely it is that debris may rain down, ESA said. Especially as satellites that have become defunct continue to operate above without directions from Earth.

With these factors in mind, ESA is promising to be more careful when it comes to their space junk. "Making space missions safer is a particularly important matter of concern for the agency," ESA said.

Aeolus's assisted reentry was part of that mission to make satellite reentry safer.

"With Aeolus, in a remarkable example of sustainable spaceflight and responsible operations, we stayed with the mission for as long as we could, guiding its return as much as it was possible to do," Aeolus Mission Manager Tommaso Parrinello said in the statement.

UAW President Shawn Fain trashes new Ford, GM, Stellantis contract proposals

Phoebe Wall Howard, Detroit Free Press
Fri, September 8, 2023 

UAW President Shawn Fain took to Facebook Live on Friday night to tell autoworkers that contract counterproposals from the Detroit Three automakers were in the trash where they belong, gesturing to a bin behind him labeled "Big Three Proposals."

"It's disgusting," Fain said, claiming that retirees have been left completely in the cold by the latest offers.

The UAW wants a "significant increase" for retirees, Fain said, but Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis have rejected all increases to retiree compensation.

He lined up written proposals on topics including wages, cost-of-living adjustments (COLA), job security, profit sharing, work-life balance and retiree benefits — and tore them to pieces as more than 11,000 viewers watched on camera, according to the viewer total appearing in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.

When it comes to wages, the UAW wants them to keep up with inflation. Meanwhile, Ford wants to use a "severely deficient" COLA formula that would have provided 0% increases for 10 of the past 13 years and would be projected to add $0 in raises over the next four years, Fain said.

"That's not cola. That's not even diet cola. That's Coke Zero," he said.

Neither GM nor Stellantis offered COLA and instead proposed lump-sum payments that exclude some workers.

UAW President Shawn Fain hosted a Facebook live meeting on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023 to update members on counterproposals from Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.

"We have a lot of work to do," Fain said. "We don't just fight for ourselves. We fight for the entire working class."

And, he promised, "We're going to fight like hell."

Fain posted charts comparing the latest company positions on key labor issues:
Wages

The UAW wants double-digit pay raises to counter salary increases of the Detroit Three CEOs, catch up with inflation and make up for decades of falling wages.


Ford and GM want a "shameful and insulting pay offer," as Fain called it, with a 10% increase over four years "that doesn't even make up for past raises wiped out by inflation. Lump sum bonuses that many employees won't receive."


Stellantis made a "deeply inadequate pay offer," he said, that provides general wage increases every year for a total of 14.5% over the four-year contract but still falls far short of making up for past inflation and doesn't safeguard against future inflation.
Profit sharing

The UAW wants workers to get $2 for every $1 million spent on share buybacks, special dividends and increases to normal dividends.


Ford wants a profit-sharing formula that would have resulted in 21% smaller checks over the last two years.


GM wants a profit-sharing formula that would have resulted in a 29% smaller check last year.


Stellantis rejected the profit-sharing proposal.
Temp workers

UAW wants to convert temporary workers to full-time after 90 days, provide full benefits and profit sharing.


Ford, GM and Stellantis offered "no path to full-time with meager wage increases to $20/hour."


Fords spokeswoman Jessica Enoch challenged the claims made by Fain, telling the Detroit Free Press, "Temporary workers represent only 3% of our hourly workforce at Ford, and they have a clear career path: Since the 2019 contract, temporary full-time employees are converted to permanent full-time employee status upon the completion of two years’ continuous service. We have converted more than 14,100 temporary employees to permanent status since 2019, including about 3,000 temporary employees that we converted to permanent last summer.”
Job security

UAW wants the right to strike over plant closures.


Ford wants the "unilateral right to outsource any" work "at any time."


GM and Stellantis rejected all job security proposals.
Work-life balance

UAW wants more paid time off and holidays.


Ford rejected nearly all proposals including recognizing Juneteenth as a paid holiday. It did include a "meager" two weeks of paid parental leave, Fain said.


GM and Stellantis offered only to recognize Juneteenth.
Employee tiers

UAW wants a 90-day progression for workers to reach a top pay rate, restoring pensions and retiree health care.


Ford wants a five-year progression while GM and Stellantis want six-year progression.


All three rejected all pension and retiree health care proposals.

"There it is. That's what they say about you behind closed doors," Fain said. "We aren't going to take whatever scraps they give us."

The UAW posted a comparison list of benefits offered by the Detroit Three in their latest contract proposals during a Facebook live event run by UAW President Shawn Fain on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023.

His member update, which began at about 5:25 p.m., is part of a transparency campaign that has transformed the 2023 contract talks with real-time updates on negotiations. The current contract, approved in 2019 and covering an estimated 150,000 hourly autoworkers, expires at 11:59 p.m. Thursday.

Ford, GM and Stellantis are negotiating deals simultaneously this year.

Fain has said workers should be able to afford the vehicles they build. He added that while "the cost of a strike might be high, the cost of doing nothing is much higher."

Ford: Scab accusation

During his remarks on Facebook, Fain accused Ford of taking out loans and arranging for "scabs" to do the jobs of union employees as strike preparation. Ford has acknowledged arranging to keep some of its parts depots running with salaried workers, as first reported by the Detroit Free Press.

In response to Fain's strike prep claims about Ford on Friday, Enoch said in a statement, "Our focus is on reaching a deal that rewards our employees, allows for the continuation of Ford’s unique position as the most American automaker and enables Ford to invest and grow. We are developing responsible contingency plans in the case of a work stoppage. When it comes to our parts depots, we have a responsibility to our customers and dealers to ship the parts that keep Ford vehicles on the road — especially to keep first responders and other essential services running. Safety and customer service are top priorities for us.”

Stellantis: "Continuing discussion"

Stellantis provided a statement late Friday that said the company and the UAW bargaining team discussions "continue to be constructive and collaborative."

The company that builds Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler, said, "Our focus continues to be on bargaining in good faith to reach a new agreement that balances the concerns of our 43,000 employees with our vision for the future – one that better positions the business to meet the challenges of the U.S. marketplace and secures the future for all of our employees, their families and our company. We will not be distracted from this important work."

Stellantis said, "We look forward to continuing our discussion with the UAW and remain committed to reaching a fair agreement by the deadline.”

GM: "Work to do"

GM reiterated on Friday a statement released a day ago: "Our offer has been developed considering everything in our environment including competitor offers and what is important to our team members. It includes well-deserved wage improvements that far exceed the 2019 agreement. We still have work to do, but we will continue to bargain in good faith with the UAW and work towards an outcome that recognizes the vital role of our team members in GM’s success.”

As the Motor City works to avoid a strike, Fain said unions including the AFL-CIO have reached out to the UAW to voice support and solidarity.

U$ Cities are advertising themselves as ‘climate havens.’ Experts say there’s no such thing

Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech
Thu, September 7, 2023

Story at a glance

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• Some parts of the upper Midwest are being called “climate havens,” or areas that are less likely to suffer from extreme heat, sea-level rise and flooding as the Earth’s temperature rises.

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• But experts agree that while some areas of the U.S. are less likely to be as harshly impacted by some consequences of climate change, no place will be immune.

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• Instead, they say, Americans need to figure out how to make all parts of the country more resilient to the impact of climate change.

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As the consequences of the planet warming grow ever more apparent, some cities are marketing themselves as “climate havens,” or refuges from extreme climate conditions.

But experts agree that no city, state or region of the country is truly immune from the climate crisis.

“It’s an absurd concept with a grain of truth,” said Neil Donahue, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Mellon College of Science.

Some places in the United States will be less harshly impacted than others by many types of extreme weather events that are being made worse by climate change, according to environmental experts.

More inland parts of the country, for instance, won’t be as intensely affected by worsening hurricanes and sea level rise, experts said. And northern areas with more moderate climates won’t be as susceptible to extreme heat and forest fires.

Many of the cities that are labeling themselves — or being labeled — climate havens are in those areas. Tulane University associate professor Jesse Keenan told CNBC that Buffalo, N.Y.; Rochester, N.Y.; Duluth, Minn.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Madison, Wis.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Detroit, Mich.; and Burlington, Vt., could provide such refuge in the future.

Some of those cities have also identified themselves as future climate havens.

In 2019, Buffalo, N.Y., Mayor Byron Brown called the city a “climate refuge” during his State of the City address. Brown’s office said the city has an opportunity to become such a refuge in a draft of his Four-Year Strategic Plan.

The city of Cincinnati, Ohio, labeled itself as a future climate refuge in its 2023 Green Cincinnati Plan.

“Although Cincinnati has its own climate vulnerabilities, it will likely emerge as a climate haven,” the plan reads.

While those cities are expected to be relatively secure from certain extreme weather events, however, many of them are vulnerable to others. For example, Buffalo, which has a reputation for being one of the snowiest cities in the U.S., could experience more intense blizzards because of climate change.

Buffalo experienced one such extreme blizzard last December, when a record-breaking storm with 70 mile-per-hour winds dropped more than four feet of snow over the Western New York city over four days. The blizzard left thousands without power amid frigid temperatures and killed at least 40 people.

Dr. Susan Clark, an assistant professor of environment and sustainability at The State University of New York, Buffalo, said she doesn’t like the term “climate haven” for this reason.

“It paints this picture that that we’re not experiencing that much change or impacts from climate change when we are when you actually look closely,” she said.

In Vermont, which has also been considered a potential refuge, flooding has become a bigger issue recently, potentially because of climate change. Heavy rains in early July dumped two months’ worth of rain over two days in the state, sparking catastrophic flash flooding and river flooding.

And nobody can escape the heat. While not every city is experiencing it at the same extreme level as, say, Phoenix, which suffered a month-long stretch of 110-degree temperatures this summer, everywhere is getting hotter as a result of climate change.

Even Minnesota, home to a few so-called climate havens, is getting warmer and wetter. Temperatures in the state have gone up by 3 degrees Fahrenheit since 1895, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Like much of the country, the state is also bracing for a September heatwave after enduring hot weather earlier in the summer.

Earlier this month, over a third of Americans were under a heat advisory as a mix of high pressure and warm air created a heat dome over the center of the country.

Since no location comes without climate risk, experts urge caution when it comes to seeking out so-called havens.

“You’re escaping one type of vulnerability but maybe opening yourself up to another,” said Clark.

But experts also stress that there are ways to adapt communities to better weather the changing climate.

“The fundamental challenge we face is not that the climate is going to be ruined, but that we built civilization for a different climate than the one we have now and the one we are going to have in the future,” said Dr. Lisa Allyn Dale, a lecturer at the Columbia Climate School.

Dale added that governments everywhere, including in the United States, are rethinking how to build cities in order to better adapt to climate change.

Building more resilient infrastructure, investing in disaster risk reduction and reforming agricultural practices are just a few things that can be done to help work with climate change, she said.

“It’s hard for me to imagine any ‘haven’ that is free from climate risk,” she said, “so part of the challenge we face is modifying our built environment to better accommodate the new reality.”

Florida city declares itself a sanctuary city 

for LGBTQ people: 'A safe place'

Giuseppe Sabella and Thao Nguyen,

 USA TODAY NETWORK
Thu, September 7, 2023

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — A southeastern Florida city declared itself a sanctuary for LGBTQ people and their families, the first of its kind in a state where advocates say laws and policies are openly targeting the gay community.

Lake Worth Beach commissioners voted unanimously on Tuesday to declare the city a safe haven for the community. The city is the first municipality in Florida to officially announce itself as a sanctuary city for LGBTQ people, according to a news release from the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council.

“The City of Lake Worth Beach shall now and forever be considered a safe place, a sanctuary, a welcoming and supportive city for LGBTQ+ individuals and their families to live in peace and comfort," the resolution states. The news release also noted that residents in Tallahassee are pushing for a similar declaration.

The announcement, which is largely symbolic, follows a flood of anti-LGBTQ legislation throughout the country. In June, the country's largest gay rights organization issued a "state of emergency," following an "unprecedented and dangerous" spike of anti-LGBTQ laws this year.

Lake Worth Beach's resolution cites data from the American Civil Liberties Union, which tracked more than 490 bills targeting LGBTQ rights in the United States. Many of the bills affect education or health care and have since become law.

The local resolution also cites research from the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that focuses on suicide prevention efforts for the LGBTQ community. The nonprofit conducted surveys in 2022 and found that 86% of transgender and nonbinary youth reported negative mental health impacts from anti-LGBTQ political debates and laws, while 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year.

“With so many LGBTQ+ people and allies fleeing Florida for less hostile states, we are thrilled Lake Worth Beach Mayor (Betty) Resch and the city commissioners continue to work to ensure the health, safety and well-being of LGBTQ+ people and our families,” said Rand Hoch, founder and president of the Human Rights Council.

Declaration comes amid Sunshine State's 'hostile' anti-LGBTQ+ laws

Lawmakers have introduced and passed numerous laws in Florida this year that are "hostile to the LGBTQ community," according to the Human Rights Campaign and Equality Florida. Both civil rights organizations issued travel advisories for the state in recent months, warning people of the "risks associated with relocation or travel" because of six anti-LGBTQ bills passed in the 2023 Legislative session.

Civil rights groups and advocates have criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for making anti-LGBTQ legislation a large part of his agenda. DeSantis signed several bills in May that ban gender-affirming care for minors, target drag shows, restrict preferred pronouns in schools and require people to use public bathrooms that align with their sex assigned at birth.

The Republican governor has also expanded the state's Parental Rights in Education Act, which was originally passed in 2022 and targeted elementary schools. Derided by critics as the "Don't Say Gay" law, the legislation now restricts discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades.

LGBTQ+ community fears: In shooting over store's Pride flag, predictions of violence again become reality

States, cities offer protections amid wave of anti-LGBTQ laws

Lake Worth Beach's resolution follows similar declarations and actions in other states and cities to protect members of the LGBTQ community. Democratic-leaning states and cities have passed bills and resolutions designed to shield LGBTQ rights, especially for people seeking transgender health care.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, there has been a steady increase in anti-LGBTQ bills that have been introduced in state legislatures over the last several years in largely red states.

In 2023, the organization said more than 525 bills were introduced across the country and over 220 of those bills targeted transgender people. And at least 20 states have passed a ban on gender-affirming care.

Last year, leaders in Austin, Texas, declared their city as a sanctuary city for transgender families. In May, officials in Missouri defied efforts made by state lawmakers to ban gender-affirming care by approving a resolution to declare Kansas City as a sanctuary city for LGBTQ people.

At the time, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said the city is committed to being a “welcoming, inclusive, and safe place for everyone, including our transgender and LGBTQ+ community.” Meanwhile, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico and Minnesota have passed bills that protect and support access to transgender health care.

And dozens of Florida cities and townships have already implement protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity in their local ordinances. Equality Florida reported in 2016 that there were 40 "safe haven" towns, cities and counties for LGBTQ people.

Advocates and researchers have also compiled data assessing the safety of states.

SafeHome.org, which reviews and analyzes home and personal security, have released safety rankings of states that provide a "general atmosphere of acceptance" for the LGBTQ community. Notably, red states in the south rank the lowest for safety due to openly discriminatory and anti-equality laws.

Teachers just want to teach: Accused of indoctrination, targeted by the right

Contributing: The Associated Press

Giuseppe Sabella is a reporter covering Boynton Beach and Lake Worth Beach at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at gsabella@pbpost.com.

This town is Florida’s first LGBTQ+ sanctuary city

Rachel Tucker
Thu, September 7, 2023 

LAKE WORTH BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) – A south Florida town has become the first in the state to formally declare itself an LGBTQ+ sanctuary city.

In a Lake Worth Beach city commission meeting Tuesday, members voted unanimously in favor of the decision, according to a report from NBC affiliate WPTV.

City council members and advocates cited concerns from the community – particularly from parents, educators and students – regarding recently enacted legislation aimed at LGBTQ+ people.

The expanded Parental Rights in Education law, which took effect in June, further limits the discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in Florida classrooms. The restrictions originally went up to third grade, but now the law covers pre-K through eighth grade.

Lake Worth Beach Mayor Betty Resch vowed to work with the city council to create a plan of action supporting LGBTQ+ people and helping them feel safe.

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“This is a crucial time for all of us to come together and stand in unity that the city is publicly making a statement, in black and white, and a resolution that it is a safe city for all of its residents,” Julie Seaver, Executive Director of Compass LGBTQ+ Community Center, told WPTV.

South Florida is considered to be more liberal than other parts of the state. Lake Worth Beach hosts Palm Beach Pride and has thriving LGBTQ-owned businesses, but advocates say the local LGBTQ+ community still needs safe spaces.

“Unfortunately, we’ve had incidents throughout Palm Beach County. We’ve had incidents here in Lake Worth Beach and to have safe spaces means a lot for people,” Rand Hoch, with the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, told WPTV. “If we can’t do anything about the people up in Tallahassee, at least we can do it here in our own backyard.”

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Hoch claims the so-called anti-LGBTQ+ legislation has not only affected residents, it has also damaged Florida’s reputation.

“We are losing a lot of tourism. We’re losing a lot of business,” Hoch told WPTV. “We want to let people know that you are welcome here, if you’re gay, lesbian or trans. And that’s an important statement to make these days because what people are hearing is the exact opposite.”

Advocates in Tallahassee are also pushing for local lawmakers to declare Florida’s capital an LGBTQ+ sanctuary city.

Some workers who rebuild homes after hurricanes are afraid to go to Florida. They blame a law DeSantis championed

Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN
Thu, September 7, 2023 

Immigrant workers from across the US raced to Florida to help rebuild after Hurricane Ian devastated the region.

But now, nearly a year later and days after another major hurricane hit, some of those workers say this time they’re staying home.

Saket Soni, whose nonprofit Resilience Force advocates for thousands of disaster response workers, says there’s one clear reason behind the shift: Florida’s new immigration law, which Gov. Ron DeSantis has championed.

In a survey Resilience Force conducted over several months this summer, Soni says more than half of the nonprofit organization’s roughly 2,000 members said they would not travel to Florida to help with hurricane recovery efforts because of the law. And in the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia, he says, many remain concerned.

“They felt very fearful,” says Soni, the organization’s executive director. “No amount of money would be worth it if it meant they would be incarcerated or deported.”

Normally, Soni says Resilience Force workers wouldn’t think twice before heading to a disaster zone.

The group is made up largely of immigrants, many of whom are undocumented, Soni says. And much like migrant workers who follow harvest seasons and travel from farm to farm, they crisscross the US to help clean up and rebuild when disaster strikes. Soni says many of them see the skills they’ve honed over years of responding to major storms as a calling, in addition to a means of supporting their families.

“Sadly,” he says, “you have all of these workers sitting in Houston and in New Orleans, coming to our offices, asking us, is there a chance this law will be repealed? Is there any chance they could go?”
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CNN has reached out to DeSantis’ office for comment. In May, the Florida governor and aspiring GOP presidential candidate signed what he touted as “the most ambitious anti-illegal immigration laws in the country.” The measure – also known as SB1718 – went into effect on July 1. It includes provisions that:

- Make it a third-degree felony to “knowingly and willfully” transport someone who’s undocumented into the state

- Require business with at least 25 workers to use E-Verify, a federal program that checks workers’ immigration status

- Invalidate driver’s licenses issued to unauthorized immigrants in other states

- Require certain hospitals in Florida to ask patients about their immigration status

At a press conference after he signed the bill, DeSantis described its passage as a “great victory.”

“In Florida, we want businesses to hire citizens and legal immigrants. But we want them to follow the law and not (hire) illegal immigrants, and that’s not that hard to do,” he said. “And once we get that kind of as a norm in our society, I think we’re going to be a lot better off.”

Supporters of the law have said stopping undocumented immigrants from coming to the state and pushing out those who already live in Florida is part of their aim.

Critics call the law “draconian” and argue that it’s hurting the state’s economy and putting immigrant communities on edge.

“People are living in fear,” says Adriana Rivera, communications director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition.

Before it went into effect, the law spurred a travel advisory from one of the most prominent Latino advocacy groups in the United States. And immigrant advocates warn that concerns over the law have already caused some workers in key industries like agriculture and construction to leave Florida.

“This law is particularly problematic because it really doesn’t benefit anyone. This law was created to demonize the state’s immigrant communities that have been so critical in building our state and growing our economy,” says Samuel Vilchez Santiago, Florida state director for the American Business Immigration Coalition.

An unstilted home that came off its blocks sits partially submerged in a canal in Horseshoe Beach, Florida, on September 1, two days after Hurricane Idalia hit. 

- Rebecca Blackwell/AP

CNN teams reporting in Florida since Idalia hit haven’t observed any worker shortages.

But in recent months, Vilchez says he’s received multiple reports from managers who’ve showed up to construction sites expecting to see workers and instead found the worksites abandoned.

Soni, Resilience Force’s executive director, says he watched a similar scene unfold a week after the law passed.

“I remember being there one afternoon and talking to a worker at lunchtime. … And he, quite literally, while he was talking to me was packing his tools into his pickup truck and leaving with his crew.”

It was an early sign, Soni says, of harms caused by the immigration law.

“It’s really undermining the ability of Floridians to recover after a hurricane,” he says. “It’s upending the possibility of homes being rebuilt.”
‘I can’t lose my family just to earn a few more dollars’

For Josue, a 23-year-old from Honduras who lives in Texas and works in home remodeling, it’s been hard to watch news reports from Florida showing Hurricane Idalia’s aftermath.

“I feel powerless, seeing how all these people need help,” he says.

Josue, who asked to be identified only by his first name because he’s undocumented, says he knows how hard it is for families to clean up and move forward after disaster strikes.

“We’ve had hurricanes like this hit Honduras, and people have helped us,” he says. “And that’s one reason I want to help. We do it with all our hearts. We do it because we are all equal.”

Last year, he spent months in the Fort Myers area rebuilding homes “from top to bottom” – some still swamped with floodwaters, some with roofs ripped off.

In this aerial view, destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Ian is shown in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, on October 2, 2022. - Win McNamee/Getty Images

This year, he says he doesn’t feel safe returning to the state.

Neither does 30-year-old Javier, who lives in New Orleans and also asked to be identified only by his first name because he’s undocumented.

After a few months remodeling homes in Fort Myers after Hurricane Ian last year, Javier says he sensed the atmosphere in the community shifting. Rumors swirled of undocumented workers getting arrested. He fled to Louisiana after hearing that more raids were imminent.

“If it was like that then, imagine how it would be now, with this law,” he says.

He thinks of the many family members he’s supporting, like his 12-year-old daughter in Honduras, who wants to be a surgeon when she grows up. And he thinks of his two sons living in Louisiana.

“I can’t lose my freedom,” he says. “I can’t lose my family just to earn a few more dollars.”
He’s worried about damage from this hurricane – and the next one

Officials are still surveying the damage Hurricane Idalia left behind when the Category 3 storm made landfall last week in Florida’s Big Bend region.

So far, despite the storm’s intensity, experts say the damage appears to be less extensive than other major hurricanes, partly because Idalia made landfall in a less populated region.

Hurricane Idalia caused between $12 billion and $20 billion in damage and lost output, according to a preliminary cost estimate from Moody’s Analytics. Hurricane Ian caused an estimated $112.9 billion of total damage, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Saket Soni, executive director of Resilience Force, speaks to workers in a parking lot in LaPlace, Louisiana, on February 07, 2022. - Josh Brasted/Getty Images

Even though the damage from this storm isn’t as extensive, Soni says his contacts in the state still report that significant help is needed.

“There’s pretty major devastation in rural areas. There’s a lot of fallen trees. There’s a lot of homeowners in rural areas trying to clean their yards, and an older population of homeowners that needs the help,” Soni says.

While worker shortages in the wake of Idalia haven’t been reported, Soni says that’s a very real possibility if another major storm strikes the state this hurricane season, which ends November 30.

Forecasters are currently eying Hurricane Lee in the Atlantic, although they say it’s too soon to know whether the storm will strike the mainland US.

“Thankfully this recent hurricane, Idalia, did not hit a major city, but the next hurricane could hit the day after tomorrow,” Soni says. “It could come for Jacksonville or Tampa or Tallahassee. And at that point the governor would have a massive rebuilding effort on his hands, and no workers to fuel it. That’s really the situation that I’m concerned about.”

That, too, would be a disaster, Soni says – but one that he says is man-made, and avoidable.

CNN’s Matt Egan, Gloria Pazmino, Bill Kirkos, Carlos Suarez, Denise Royal, Isabel Rosales, Laura Robinson and Elisabeth Buchwald contributed to this report.