HARLINGEN, Texas (Border Report) — The South Texas border town of Laredo will cover up a 5-year-old anti-border wall street mural after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to withhold $1.6 billion in Texas Department of Transportation funds from the city because of it.
The Laredo City Council on Monday voted 8 to 1 to re-surface the city road in front of the federal courthouse where on Aug. 15, 2020, hundreds of volunteers painted in giant yellow letters reading “DEFUND THE WALL — FUND OUR FUTURE.”
Laredo City Councilwoman Melissa Cigarroa was the lone dissenter in Monday’s vote during the special meeting.
In 2020, she was a leader in the No Border Wall Coalition, which raised funds to paint the mural.
She told Border Report on Tuesday that all proper paperwork was approved and the city street was closed for the mural painting and, at the time, the organization met all requirements.
She says the state “used extortion” and threatened to withhold $1.6 billion in state road funds to Laredo if it isn’t removed. But she says the mural did what it was intended to do by drawing national attention to Laredo, which was one of the only South Texas towns not to have a border wall constructed on its banks of the Rio Grande.
“In the end, the fact that it has had a five-year life has been a blessing. I think the issue is still unfortunately present today but it served its purpose. And it is still an example of the amazing community effort to come together and fight against that wall. And our coalition is still strong and still out there organizing around protecting our water, and being more aware of conservation efforts along the river bank to protect the river as our only source of drinking water,” Cigarroa told Border Report.
“Paving over the mural, the symbolism isn’t wrapped up in trying to silence us because that isn’t going to happen, right? We’ve already proven that — the coalition. But it’s more a symbolism of what this administration and this governor are doing to the freedom of expression in communities. And if they want to pretend it’s road safety but that’s an invented justification. Really it is about silencing communities,” Cigarroa said.
The city council will now spend $50,000 in city road funds to repave the street, which Cigarroa calls “an unfunded mandate that we now have to swallow as a city.”
“And it’s all due to the threats by the governor,” she said. “This over-bearing reinvention of the rules … This is a city street. It’s not a TxDOT street.”
The mural was painted in the middle of a block in downtown Laredo in front of the federal courthouse and George P. Kazan Federal Building.
It’s the same courthouse where the coalition also placed hundreds of pairs of shoes on the front steps to signify migrants who have crossed from Mexico.
After the Laredo city council approved the street mural in early August 2020, a faction of the coalition, called the Mothers And Grandma’s Against the Wall (MAGAW) sent home-baked cookies and cakes to every council member as a gesture of thanks.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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