Laredo's Epic Battle Against Federal and State-Funded Border Walls: A Conversation with Tricia Cortez

Tricia Cortez in a still from the documentary The Southern Front about Laredo’s battle against the federal border wall.

In 2019, former President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the border, making border wall construction a top priority. Some of that wall was slated for the city of Laredo, Texas. Tricia Cortez, Executive Director of the nonprofit Rio Grande International Study Center, based in Laredo, talks about her community’s “David vs. Goliath” battle against the Trump administration’s 30-foot wall. Now her community faces a new onslaught of proposed border wall construction by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.