Thread: DHS Arizona border plans

DHS to discuss Arizona border plans
May 13th, 2008 @ 2:28pm
by Associated Press

Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection officials are set to discuss their plans for border infrastructure in southern Arizona at an open house Tuesday in Sierra Vista.

They're expected to talk about vehicle and pedestrian fencing, access roads and patrol roads along the Mexican border in the Border Patrol's Tucson sector, which includes Cochise County.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff drew strong criticism from environmentalists last year for ordering road and fencing construction within the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.

He waived a number of environmental laws to allow fence construction to proceed under authority that Congress gave him.

CBP says it will build in an environmentally positive way.


http://www.ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=835826

Border fence plans subject of feds' open house in Arizona
May 14th, 2008 @ 5:59am
by Associated Press

Customs and Border Protection officials say some 44 miles of new border pedestrian fencing is in the works in Arizona, above another hundred miles of such fencing and vehicle barriers already built.

And 45 more miles of new vehicle barriers are to be added, the officials said at an open house Tuesday attended mostly by people living in border areas of southeastern Arizona.

But they provided little detail on locations and conducted no audience dialogue, focusing on giving those who turned out the opportunity to ask questions or make comments individually, or to provide written or oral statements.

The open house is one method CBP is using to meet a requirement under a 1996 immigration law to consult stakeholders about construction and placement of fencing along the southwest border, said Greg Gephart, deputy program manager for tactical infrastructure on the fence-building project.

``I was expecting a little more information than they gave,'' said Foster Butler, who owns a ranch on the border next to the Coronado National Memorial. ``They don't want to talk to us here.''

Gephart had told about 40 people present that government representatives, including several Border Patrol agents, were there to listen, ``to obtain your feedback, questions and information on potentially sensitive environmental resources.''

Fewer than 20 questions were turned in, Border Patrol spokeswoman Dove Haber said.

Gephart said environmental issues on area fencing being built had been discussed at a previous community meeting.

But Ellen Logue, another border resident, said she tried without success to find out when and where the meeting was held and how landowners near the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area were informed of plans to put up fencing now on the environmentally sensitive land.

``We were not informed that they were going to build a fence,'' said Logue, who lives just north of a recently constructed portion of pedestrian fencing immediately east of the conservation area.

Several people said they were puzzled why officials were taking comments about fencing that already has been started or that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has contracts to build.

And 77-year-old Sierra Vista resident Kathryn Brookshire, who wants a ``good migrant worker program,'' said, ``I don't like the fence. And I don't like it going across or near the river.''

The infrastructure improvements are part of the Department of Homeland Security's initiative to crack down on illegal immigration and drug trafficking across the Mexican border. The plans also call for nearly 50 more miles of border access roads in Arizona, the focal point for that traffic.

DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff waived numerous environmental laws to allow fence construction to proceed on April 1, using congressional authorization.

But he has committed CBP to ``responsible environmental stewardship of our valuable natural and cultural resources,'' even though CBP is not legally obligated under the waived laws, Gephart said.

Chertoff drew strong criticism from environmentalists last year for ordering road and fencing construction within the San Pedro conservation zone near here.

Eric Eldridge, a Corps of Engineers official, said the bulk of the vehicle fencing will go on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation, with more planned in Douglas and in the Sonoita area, he said.


http://www.ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=836545