Various student groups gathered on the Glenn Terrell Mall on Wednesday to protest the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, which will allow the construction of a 700-mile wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Progressive Student Union and groups from the Chicano/a Latino/a Student Center came out to discuss the law, which gives $1.2 billion in funding to complete the wall.

The students handed out fliers, posted informational signs and spoke out against the Border Security Law.

“When we should be building bridges; we’re talking about walls,” said Eric Johnson, an anthropology graduate student and member of the Progressive Student Union. The demonstration started when the CLSC heard of a demonstration planned by the College Republicans this week in support of the Homeland Security Act, said Erica Abad, an American studies graduate student and member of the CLSC. Wednesday was also the first day of the Day of the Dead celebration, which is practiced by many Mexican and Native American cultures near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Every year, WSU students make an altar on the mall for Day of the Dead to honor ancestors and teach people about different tribal cultures, said Margo Tamez, an American studies teaching assistant. Some student groups were upset with the College Republicans’ plan to hold a demonstration in support of a border wall during a time that is considered sacred to many ethnic groups that live near the border, she said.

“We wanted to respond nonviolently to an issue that has already caused so much violence,” Abad said. “There were some concerns of the College Republicans’ demonstration about the border during a sacred week for people in the borderland.” An e-mail sent out by Sean Gallegos, an academic coordinator for the Department of Comparative Ethnic Studies and a WSU Young Democrats member, informed various student organizations of the College Republicans’ demonstration, said Dan Ryder, east vice chairman of the Washington College Republican Federation.

The Republicans’ demonstration was planned to be a 24-foot long chain-link fence containing facts about national security and border threats, Ryder said.

“The wall is known as the Wall of Death in borderland communities,” Tamez said. Tamez, who is from Southern Texas, has family on the Mexican side of the border.

While Tamez and others were setting up an altar on the mall Tuesday night, they were approached by members of the College Republicans who said their demonstration had been postponed indefinitely, she said.

The College Republicans postponed the demonstration due to threats of violence against members, Ryder said.