Thread: Fence is at center of 'Battle of Eagle Pass'

Fence is at center of 'Battle of Eagle Pass'

Web Posted: 01/25/2008 01:32 AM CST

Sara Inés Calderón
Express-News

Eagle Pass' industrial park, golf course, a new residential subdivision and the municipal water intake will be cut off from the rest of the city if a previously unknown segment of the border fence is built, Mayor Chad Foster says.


In what Foster termed "The Battle of Eagle Pass," the city is responding to an unexpected lawsuit filed Jan. 14 that revealed the U.S. Homeland Security Department is planning to build a fence along 233 acres of the Rio Grande.

A federal judge ruled the same day the suit was filed that the city must give access to federal fence surveyors and inspectors.

The fence and lawsuit seeking access caught the city by surprise, Foster said, because Eagle Pass fully cooperated with the government for the installation of 15 light towers and an access road.

However, the suit outlined a proposed segment of the fence that baffled city officials, who claimed no one ever had informed them of it.

"Once they put a fence up, we've ceded it to Mexico," said Foster, who added that he supports other enforcement tactics, such as sensors and more Border Patrol agents. "What has America come to? I have to protect my property from my own government?"

Officials at DHS said they have been working with landowners, including municipalities, for more than a year. This includes town hall meetings, door-to-door conversations and letters.

"The allegation that somehow we have not let them know is misleading," said Laura Keehner, spokeswoman for DHS.

Texas border towns and residents cheered in December when U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison pushed through an amendment to the Secure Fence Act that eliminated the requirement for a double-layered fence.

The amendment handed discretion for fence placement to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Foster understood the law, including the amendment, to mean landowners would have more wiggle room to work with DHS in fence placement.

Specifically, he wrote in a letter to homeland security that the law requires the agency to "consult with the communities and residents located near the sites at which such fencing is to be constructed."

But ever since the lawsuit, Foster said he said has lost faith in homeland security.

Hutchison's office declined to comment.

The fence will have a negative impact on business in Eagle Pass, Foster said.

The Maverick County Development Corp. Industrial Park that houses customs brokers and maquiladoras, and the new Valencia subdivision that was slated to begin selling lots for home construction will be on the southern side of the fence, wedged between the barrier and the river.

Tony Sifuentes, who worked on developing the Valencia subdivision for two years, was excited about the 165-home, 67-acre development along the river.

Border Patrol agents, customs officers, professionals and other federal employees, would have bought the $170,000 houses, said Sifuentes, who's not named in the suit but is worried about the future of the project.

"It is going to divide our property in two, it's going to run right down the middle," Sifuentes said of the 8- to 10-foot fence. "This is a $30 million deal, I don't know how we're going to get compensated."



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scalderon@express-news.net

The Maverick County Development Corp. Industrial Park that houses customs brokers and maquiladoras, and the new Valencia subdivision that was slated to begin selling lots for home construction will be on the southern side of the fence, wedged between the barrier and the river.

Does the fence go through the subdivision itself? It doesn't appear that way on the map.
If the fence isn't going on their property I would think this would just be bad luck. The US isn't ceding any property away. It isn't anymore of an injustice than being on the wrong side of the railroad tracks...

Indeed they could build houses for federal employees. But since it is a private development would they actually hire Americans?

Fence is at center of 'Battle of Eagle Pass'

Web Posted: 01/25/2008 01:32 AM CST

Sara Inés Calderón
Express-News

Author of this article,Sara Inés Calderón related to Mexican President Calderon?

"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion." Article IV Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution.