Currents News Staff
Standing at over 18 feet above ground, a half-mile steel barrier was built without help from Congress, and without President Trump.
With thousands pitching in, the organization ‘We Build The Wall’ says it has raised millions of dollars to build its own stretch of border wall in New Mexico.
It all started with Brian Kolfage, a military veteran, who was tired of what he called “inaction from Congress.”
“We were promised border security and that is something that was close to me,” said Kolfage, President of We Build The Wall. “We wanted border security.”
Just a few miles away in El Paso, Texas, attorney Sylvia Borunda Firth has taken matters into her own hands, but with a very different approach.
She volunteers pro-bono, assisting asylum seekers in the early stages of their immigration proceedings at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.
“I was lucky enough to get a law degree, and I felt like it was time to give back and if I could in any way to help in this crisis situation. The family separation stuff was really what made me feel like ‘this is not America,’ and these people need help,” she said.
Firth explained how she first helped at local shelters, but later decided that what she was doing wasn’t enough.
“And even though I didn’t have any training in immigration law, I was looking for a way to try to help. to get in the system and help them.”
But, neither Kolfage nor Firth see their work as the ultimate solution.
“This is a band-aid to the problem,” said Kolfage. “The problem, you know, is the cartels across the border. We’re not doing what we need to do as a country to address that problem.”
Both are tired of waiting.
Kolfage’s belief is “until we get border security, this is never gonna be solved.”
But to Firth, “surely, we can rise to fix this. I’m hopeful, I’m just hopeful that something will happen.