Mexico demands removal of US barrier built on Mexican side of border

The Associated Press
Monday, June 25, 2007
MEXICO CITY: Mexico is demanding the United States immediately remove a seven-year-old vehicle barrier it built on the Mexican side of the two countries' border.

The Foreign Relations Department said Monday that it sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City protesting the barrier, built by U.S. military personnel in 2000 west of the town of Palomas in Chihuahua state, across from New Mexico.

The U.S. acknowledges that the barrier encroaches into Mexican territory between one and six feet (0.3 to 1.8 meters) along a 1.5-mile (2.5-kilometer) stretch.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Michael Friel told The Associated Press that the 5-foot-tall (1.5-meter-tall) barrier was not intentionally erected in Mexico. He said an aerial survey conducted in March revealed that parts of the structure crossed over the border.

"The construction was based on what was understood to be the international boundary at the time," Friel said. The U.S. government plans to remove the barrier, and at the same time, erect a temporary one in its territory, he said.

The fence — built with hollow metal tubes filled with cement and planted a couple of feet (half a meter) apart — is designed to block vehicles carrying illegal migrants or drugs and also to keep cattle on the proper side of the border.

"Our country will continue insisting on the removal (of the fence) to be done as quickly as possible," the Foreign Relations Department said.

It did not say when Mexico noticed the fence on its territory or when the diplomatic note was sent.

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