U.S. border media official reports harassment
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| Courtesy photo of border wall by KRQE.Com |
In the aftermath of a Twitter exchange with
proponents of a U.S.-Mexico border wall, the spokesperson for a U.S. government
agency charged with administering U.S.-Mexico boundary and water issues reports
being the target of personal attacks, hate mail and threats.
Lori Kuczmanski, spokesperson for the El
Paso-based U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission
(USIBWC) says she has been the subject of memes and the recipient of hostile
e-mails and phone calls, some coming in at 2 a.m.
"They yell and scream.
They're very unwilling to listen," says Kuczmanski.
The reported intimidation follows an unusual
exchange last weekend posted on the Twitter account of Brian Kolfage of We
Build the Wall Inc., a Florida-based organization that constructed a
half-mile-long, 18-foot steel bollard fence mainly on privately-owned land at
Mt. Cristo Rey just feet from the Mexican border in Sunland Park, New Mexico, earlier
this month. The addition of a gate on USIBWC property, however, sparked a
dispute with the federal agency.
On Twitter, Kuczmanski accuses the group fronted
by Kolfage, a U.S. Air Force veteran triple amputee, of propagating lies and
frauds about the Sunland Park project and the USIBWC's relationship to it.
Kuczmanski stresses that she posted the messages
as a private citizen and not in her official capacity as the USIBWC public
affairs officer. But Kuczmanski describes being fed up with an organization
that she contends is spreading misinformation while soliciting money online to
fund privately-built sections of the border wall.
"And the American people following them,
believe it. It's fake news..," Kuczmanski asserts. "Anybody who
questions them, they attack. Then they have a mass attack on you. It's not
American, (or) working cooperatively."
An official USIBWC statement dated June 11
states:
"A private organization, We Build the Wall,
built a gate on federal land in Sunland Park, N.M., near El Paso, Texas,
without authority, and then locked the gate closed on June 6, 2019. The private
gate blocks a levee road owned by the U.S. Government. After repeated requests
to unlock and open the private gate, the United States Section of the
International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC), accompanied by two
uniformed law enforcement officers from the Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Office,
removed the private lock, opened the gate, and locked the gate open pending
further discussions with We Build the Wall.
The gate was also opened so that
USIBWC employees can conduct maintenance and operations at American Dam.
The USIBWC
did not authorize the construction of the private gate on federal property as
announced on We Build the Wall’s Twitter page. The USIBWC is not charged with
securing other fences or gates as reported by We Build the Wall.
The
international border fences are not on USIBWC property. The USIBWC did not open
any other gates in the El Paso area as erroneously reported. Other gates and
the border fence are controlled by other federal agencies.
An incomplete application permit from We Build
the Wall was submitted to the USIBWC on Sunday, June 2.
The USIBWC responded to
the initial permit request on June 6 with questions and requests for additional
information. The USIBWC has not yet received a response from the private
organization regarding the Agency’s initial response to their permit request.
The USIBWC is concerned about the safety and
security of our employees and the infrastructure at the American Dam, which is
next to the privately-constructed gate. Despite USIBWC requests to locate the
gate further from American Dam, the private gate was constructed in a way that
may channel undocumented immigrants into the American Dam area. When the proper
documentation is received for the permit, USIBWC will continue to process the
permit application."
It should be noted that the American Dam on the
Rio Grande is located in a river that has experienced recent high and swift
flows from the release of irrigation water stored at Elephant Butte Reservoir
about 100 miles to the north in New Mexico.
The Rio Grande, as well as nearby
canals that channel the irrigation water, are dangerous waters, as has been
tragically evidenced this month.
El Paso media and U.S. Customs and Border
Protection (CPB) have so far in June reported the recovery of eight bodies, likely
those of migrants who drowned in waterways, including a little girl.
Back on Twitter, Kolfage tags Kuczmanski as the
purveyor of misinformation, tweeting June 15, that "IBWC PR Rep
@lkuczmanski75 goes ROGUE! Gave media all week false statements! The IBWC
commissioner has been great to us and it was only this person stirring the pot
the entire time!"
Kolfage's Twitter account includes additional
attacks on Kuczmanski by others and contains a photo of her prominently
displayed. She is also an issue on We
Build the Wall’s Facebook, with some posters even referring to her as a traitor
or as a paid “cartel” dupe and demanding that she be fired.
Initially, as the dispute with USIBWC thickened,
calls for an investigation of USIBWC Commissioner Jayne Harkins, who was
appointed to the post late last year by President Trump and is the first woman
to head the agency, appeared on Kolfage’s Twitter page.
Ultimately, an agreement was reached between the
USIBWC and We Build the Wall that the gate would be unlocked during the day and
locked at night, according to Kuczmanski.
Kolfage then softened his tone around Harkins in
the lead up to the flare-up with Kuczmanski. Nonetheless, We Build the Wall’s
Facebook still contains a link to a petition demanding Harkins’ firing.
Another target of We Build the Wall supporters is
the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, which sent a petition to the
USIBWC opposing the Sunland Park fence on federal property.
The civil liberties group has posted a video that
shows one of its staff members being blocked June 7 from traveling on the road
that skirts the Rio Grande and Mt. Cristo Rey and leads up to Monument One, a
historic site and the international boundary marker where the U.S. states of
Texas and New Mexico meet the Mexican state of Chihuahua.
A man on the other side of the fence is shown
threatening to call the police, yelling at the ACLU to “Get the F…out!,” and
denouncing “liberals.”
A posting
on Kolfage’s Twitter account insists the ACLU lied about the incident, but ACLU
attorney Kristin Love refuted the writer, saying her group’s staffer was only
able to pass hours later after much “back and forth” with the USIBWC.
Kuzcmanski's Twitter tussle with We Build the
Wall supporters follows on the heels of death threats and personal attacks
Sunland Park Mayor Javier Perea told media he received after his
administration temporarily suspended construction of the private fence because
of permitting irregularities in late May.
On May 29, after the deluge of angry
messages and threats, the City of Sunland Park building inspector signed a
permit, major construction soon resumed and was finished by June 5.
After last weekend's war of words on Twitter,
Kuczmanski says she is done with posting messages on the social media service
about We Build the Wall, and has taken measures to block and monitor new rounds
of harassment.
"It's a no-win situation with them,"
she sighs. Unfortunately, the dispute moved from the "professional"
to the "personal" realm, the border media specialist says.
[ Journalist and author Kent Paterson is a regular contributor to the Digie Zone Network.]
