Thread: Hidalgo County nears end for its border fence

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Hidalgo County nears end for its border fence
Associated Press
Dec. 27, 2008, 11:04AM

McALLEN — Hidalgo County expects its 20-mile section of the border fence to be completed next month, while opposition from property owners and local officials elsewhere in the Rio Grande Valley continues to stall the disputed project.

Hidalgo County officials said construction of its levee-fence should finish by Jan. 31. The federal government has declared four of the wall's 10 segments in the county as substantially complete in the past month.

Concrete barriers intended for flood protection are up in more than 80 percent of the project, and capping posts and sodding the ground is about all that remains to be finished in those places, officials said.

``For us, it's a levee project. It's all we care about,'' Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas told the McAllen Monitor. ``Hidalgo County is not in the business of American immigration.''

The county will still miss the Wednesday deadline Congress set in 2005, when it mandated construction of 670 miles of fence to help secure the border and slow illegal immigration.

But by comparison, Hidalgo County's progress is far ahead of other Rio Grande Valley communities, where construction of the border fence has been the slowest in the country.

In Starr and Cameron counties, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security met widespread opposition as it contended with hundreds of condemnation lawsuits and flood-control issues along the Rio Grande.

The Cameron County Commissioners Court wrote a letter to President-elect Barack Obama requesting that construction on the border be halted. But U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the fence in South Texas will be finished.

``We're still planning to build fence there,'' agency spokeswoman Angela de Rocha said. ``We've got contracts for them. Once you sign a contract, you're obligated to do that work.''

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said 600 miles should be complete by the time Obama takes office next month.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hot ... 83364.html

"We're still planning to build fence there,'' agency spokeswoman Angela de Rocha said. ``We've got contracts for them. Once you sign a contract, you're obligated to do that work.''

You would think but I bet they get out of it!
Remember the money allocated for the fence?
It was spent elsewhere!