Thread: Lawmakers due in border cities to eye detention center, fenc

Carlos Guerra
Lawmakers due in border cities to eye detention center, fence issue

Web Posted: 07/09/2007 10:52 PM CDT


San Antonio Express-News

Before leaving for a series of private meetings with local government officials in Del Rio, Eagle Pass and Brownsville, U.S. Reps. David Price and Ciro RodrÃ*guez, both Democrats, discussed the purpose of their trip here and to the three border cities.
Price, who represents North Carolina, is chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee for Homeland Security. RodrÃ*guez also is a member of the panel.


No other congressional district has more miles of border than does RodrÃ*guez's, which includes part of San Antonio and stretches from Eagle Pass to the outskirts of El Paso.

With immigration reform all but dead until after the 2008 elections, border policy considerations have shifted to the appropriations process.

"In San Antonio, we talked to (local officials) about everything from inoperable communications in law enforcement to research," Price said. "But the main purpose of the trip is to see the detention center (in Hutto, where immigrant families are being held), and border defense, and what form that's going to take."

Texas border city mayors, the congressmen said, have made their opposition to fences traversing their communities clear. And exactly how border fences are built is still largely undetermined, as is what consultation the Homeland Security Department will have with local governments before barriers go up.

"I didn't think we should finalize the Homeland Security appropriations until we came to Texas," Price said.

Texas has a special stake in border security issues since more than half of the international line abuts the Lone Star State. And Texas' share of the southern border differs markedly from other border zones.

"What we hear from Arizona and from California," RodrÃ*guez said, "is very different from what we hear from Texas."

Texas twin cities are vibrant, binational communities through which significant trade is conducted. And Texas' border twins are well integrated economically and socially with their Mexican counterparts.

Additionally, Texas' fences will, of necessity, go through a lot of private property, and through a number of wildlife habitats that state and federal agencies have painstakingly assembled over decades to protect a rich biodiversity.

There also is the fact that, unlike other state's borders, virtually all of Texas' border with Mexico is the Rio Grande, adding complex water-rights issues to the policy mix.

Since the fence won hurried congressional approval, other problems with the general plan — which calls for two fences with a roadway between them for Border Patrol vehicles — have emerged.

Initial plans, for example, call for fences to split the campus of the University of Texas at Brownsville, putting some classrooms south of the fences.

Will students have to go through Customs between classes? Also unresolved is the legal status of land south of the barriers.

Price conceded that while a border fence is favored in his own district, what seemed like a practical solution in non-border states — and inside the Beltway — could create significant problems where they are built.

The cost, currently estimated at $3 million per mile, also could rise significantly because of Texas' geography, and the need to take a lot of private land by condemnation.

There also are questions about the fences' effectiveness.

"The Border Patrol will tell you that the fence is good, but only if they are patrolling it," RodrÃ*guez said. "It is only as good as the amount of time it takes to jump it; so if it takes two minutes to jump it, that's the extra time they are given.

"That's why we're calling for 3,000 more Border Patrol (agents) and adding $2.1 billion above to the president's request," he added, which is especially important after the collapse of immigration reform.

And even Congress will have to take local concerns into account, Price said, especially how fences might affect trade.

"And people seem to like the fence in inverse proportion to how close they are to the border," he laughed.


http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/ ... 470b7.html

The cost, currently estimated at $3 million per mile, also could rise significantly because of Texas' geography, and the need to take a lot of private land by condemnation.

3 million per mile? What in God's name are they making the fence out of? Gold bricks from Ft. Knox?

So what's next? Are they going to tell us they can't build the fence because they don't have enough cheap labor to do so?

I wouldn't be at surprised if this is one of their next tactics.

That's because the government is contracting for it! As a career purchasing agent, I can tell you that the people who do the purchasing in the government are so stupid it is unreal.

I guarantee I could put up a mile of fence for a helluva lot less then that.....and it would be better fence to boot!

I will guarantee something else. The cost will be more, and the time line will be longer. They are not smart enough to put required completion dates with big fines in their contracts for every day the contract is not completed.

Remember the $500 toilet SEATS?????????