Fifty people locked arms across the Paso del Norte International Bridge in protest of President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall on Sunday, Feb. 12.
The protest was organized by Chandelier Treviso, sophomore English and American literature major and an activist who also started the Not My President protest at San Jacinto Plaza in downtown El Paso, where more than 1,000 people gathered against the then President-elect Trump.
“I think it’s important to let people know that not all of us stand by with what (Trump) has to say about Mexico,” said Treviso. “What happens to one of us directly effects the other because people kind of makes their lives in both cities here because we are a borderland.”
President Trump has campaigned on building a wall that spans the US/Mexico border, and has passed two executive orders calling for the construction of the wall as well as the expansion of border security.
Marisol Sanchez is an alumna of UTEP who participated in the protest.
“I don’t think it’s right to separate families, to build walls, to divide people who had no choice coming here,” Sanchez said. “My parents were able to bring me here legally, but there are other people who didn’t run, who don’t have the same blessing I have, so I want to stand up for those people.”
Treviso said that locking arms on the bridge was to show people in Washington DC that both El Paso and Cd. Juárez stand as one community.
“Crossing this way towards the United States it stands for the American dream,” Treviso said. “Because realistically, that’s what the United States was founded on, the idea of finding a place where you can make your life better and prosper and push yourself to be a better person.”
