Government, university back in court over fence
By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press Writer © 2008 The Associated Press
July 31, 2008, 12:02AM
McALLEN, Texas — The federal government and a Texas university are set to update a federal judge in Brownsville on their work toward ending a standoff over plans to build a border fence through the school's campus.

The University of Texas at Brownsville and Department of Homeland Security will report their progress to U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen Thursday morning.

The university dragged the government back into court June 30, accusing it of violating an earlier court-approved agreement to study alternatives to a physical barrier that would cut off the university's golf course and land for expansion.

Hanen agreed and ordered both sides to get the expertise and authority in the same room to find a solution that would meet the Border Patrol's security needs without disrupting the university.

The university and its two-year sister school Texas Southmost College have been the most formidable opponents of a border fence that is widely unpopular in the Rio Grande Valley. The university with a 17,000-student enrollment and part of the nation's second-largest university system argues that the fence would crush expansion plans and offend the university's mission to offer a binational education.

Hanen suggested both sides study the possibility of building the fence along a levee closer to the river that is no longer certified but perhaps could be repaired. The university had already started talks with the International Boundary and Water Commission about moving its levee.

Earlier this month university President Juliet Garcia visited Washington, D.C., for meetings with Customs and Border Protection Commissioner W. Ralph Basham and Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar.

"We have been able to open up some very novel and creative thinking in this process that may very well present a solution particularly suitable to our two different missions," Michael Putegnat, a consultant hired by the university to steer the talks, wrote in an e-mail.

Hanen is also scheduled to hear 13 land condemnation cases Thursday as the government readies the fence's path in Cameron County.

One of those landowners is Eloisa Tamez, who has fought the government every step of the way. Tamez has appealed an earlier temporary condemnation that allowed the government to survey her land for the border fence and countersued. On Thursday, Hanen will consider a final request from the government to condemn about a quarter acre of land that has been in her family for generations.

Contractors began work on two segments of a combined levee-border wall in neighboring Hidalgo County last weekend. They are the first new sections of fence to get under way in Texas.

The Department of Homeland Security is racing to finish 670 miles of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border by the end of the year to comply with a congressional mandate.


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