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 News from Around the Americas | April 2007 
Border Agents to Discuss New Fence
 Lynn Brezosky - Associated Press
| | Some Texas congressmen have urged Homeland Security officials to consider the effects a barrier could have on irrigation and recreation, as well as on wildlife corridors that state and federal officials have spent years building up. |
Harlingen, Texas – The first public steps toward building President Bush's proposed border fence in Texas are beginning with Border Patrol agents gathering Rio Grande Valley landowners to a meeting about the project.
The first fencing in Texas, designed to help control illegal immigration, will be erected for 2 1/2 miles on either side of eight bridges between the United States and Mexico, said a landowner in Roma who met with Border Patrol agents earlier this week.
Bush last May proposed 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, for which Congress has appropriated $1.2 billion. Landowners and others along the border have complained that it will do little to control immigration and will cut off water access for people, agriculture, livestock and wildlife along the border.
Noel Benavides, a Roma alderman, said Border Patrol agents showed him maps and preliminary information about 40 miles of fencing near eight ports of entry. He said he and several other land owners were to get more information at the meeting next week.
"They said it was a done deal," he said.
Customs and Border Protection spokesman Mike Friel in Washington said he could offer few details, other than that CBP was committed to erecting 370 miles of primary fencing along the Southwest border by the end of 2008.
"At this point we're reaching out to landowners," spokesman Mike Friel said. "We have a commitment to maintain awareness of what we're doing to secure the border. ... Our strategy is to add the right mix of personnel and property along the border."
The House Homeland Security Appropriations committee released $425 million of that in late March, said Kirstin Brost, spokeswoman for the committee.
Some Texas congressmen have urged Homeland Security officials to consider the effects a barrier could have on irrigation and recreation, as well as on wildlife corridors that state and federal officials have spent years building up.
"We specifically mentioned they needed to do outreach to local communities," said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo.
Cuellar said the Roma meeting could only be a step toward a fence on private property, because the government would have to first obtain rights to the land.
"They cannot start bulldozing private property without eminent domain," he said.
Friel said he was not prepared to speak about government seizure of private property for the project.
"We are committed to an ongoing effort to maintain awareness of our efforts and to partner with landowners who have land on the international boundary," he said.
Benavides said he and other landowners never thought the fence would really happen.
Benavides objects to the fence. His property on the Rio Grande dates back to a 1760s Spanish land grant, and he worries about the message it will send to Mexico. His family ties across the river predate the treaty that made the river the U.S-Mexico border.
The land is also a haven for migratory birds and a place for Boy Scout and other outings, he said.
"The river has been a lifeline all these years," he said. "We don't see the river as a dividing line. We have canoe rides, we have kayaking. ... You're going to have a fence, you're going to have a locked gate. Who's going to have the key?" |
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