Thread: Hostile reception for pro-fence congressmen in Brownsville

Hostile reception for pro-fence congressmen in Brownsville

Associated Press - April 28, 2008 7:35 PM ET

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) - Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo got a hostile reception today in Brownsville -- a city that has become the epicenter of opposition to a border fence.

Tancredo is among the strongest congressional supporters of building a 670-mile fence between Mexico and the U.S.

Appearing at a congressional field hearing, Tancredo dismissed concerns by residents that building the fence would damage the environment and destroy bonds between residents on both sides of the Rio Grande.

Audience members booed and hissed Tancredo for his remarks.

Opposition to the fence in Brownsville is pervasive.

Brownsville sits at the southernmost tip of Texas, where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf of Mexico.

The border fence would cut through the campus of the University of Texas at Brownsville and Southmost Texas College -- leaving its golf course on the Mexican side.

The hearing was supposed to focus on the authority Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff used April 1st to bypass three dozen laws that could have slowed fence construction.

Work on the fence in South Texas is scheduled to begin this summer.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.kcbd.com/Global/story.asp?S=8240316

who idea was it to build the golf courses on the Mexico side ? STUPID

Well Brownsville You stop the Illegals then . I don't care who does it and at this point i don't even care how it's done . Just do it and quick

April 28, 2008, 4:33PM
Hostile reception for pro-fence congressmen in Brownsville


By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press Writer
© 2008 The Associated Press


BROWNSVILLE, Texas — One of Congress' strongest border fence proponents received a hostile reception Monday in the city that has become the epicenter of fence opposition.

Boos and hisses emanated from the audience for a congressional field hearing when Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado dismissed residents' concerns that the effort to build 670 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border by year's end would damage the environment and destroy a centuries-old bond between residents on both sides of the Rio Grande.

Late in the five-hour hearing, Tancredo returned to a comment made earlier by panelist Betty Perez, a rancher and local activist. Perez said, "It really isn't a border to most of us who live down here."

Tancredo dismissed Perez's remarks as a "multiculturalist attitude toward borders."

As jeers rose, Tancredo added, "I suggest that you build this fence around the northern part of your city."

Brownsville sits at the southernmost tip of Texas, where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf of Mexico. The border fence as planned would cut through the campus of the University of Texas at Brownsville and Southmost Texas College, leaving its golf course on the Mexican side.

Opposition to the fence is so pervasive that last fall, when the federal government offered property owners money for access to survey their land, Mayor Pat Ahumada called it "blood money."

The hearing was supposed to focus on the authority Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff used April 1 to bypass three dozen laws that could have slowed fence construction. Work on the fence in South Texas is scheduled to begin this summer.

Instead, panelists largely replayed the debate that has been raging in border communities for months in a lecture hall not far from where a section of 18-foot tall border fence would divide the campus.

Opinions about the pressing necessity for 670 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border split between those who see a war with drug smugglers and illegal immigrants spreading north from the border and those who see the fence as a threat to the environment and their way of life.

"This wall, built on U.S. soil, will not only move the U.S. border inward from the Rio Grande river, but will also alienate people and businesses who live and work between the wall and the border, in effect creating a zone where U.S. citizens and businesses exist 'south of the border,'" said Rev. Raymundo Pena, Bishop of the Diocese of Brownsville. Pena submitted 10,000 signatures of people opposed to the fence.

Tancredo, who recently criticized Pope Benedict XVI for his comments in defense of immigrants, asked Pena if he believed there should be a border — Pena said he does — and said such references to the barrier as a "wall" were inaccurate and meant to dredge up images of the Berlin Wall.

"This is meant to keep people out," Tancredo said. The fence is a "logical and effective approach" and "perhaps the most humane way" to curb illegal immigration.

U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat and chairman of the subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, has introduced legislation that would repeal Chertoff's waiver authority. Tuesday's was a joint field hearing with the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans.

Tancredo and U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, both former Republican presidential hopefuls who ran on anti-illegal immigration platforms, argued that environmental degradation caused by unchecked illegal immigration and drug smugglers exceeded any impact from the fence.

In defending the waivers, Hunter gave the example of a four-mile stretch of border fence through his Southern California district that took 12 years to build because of objections by environmentalists.

"I think he's done the right thing," Hunter said of Chertoff's decision to use the waivers.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5736894.html

"Brownsville sits at the southernmost tip of Texas, where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf of Mexico. The border fence as planned would cut through the campus of the University of Texas at Brownsville and Southmost Texas College, leaving its golf course on the Mexican side."

When they build "their" golf course in a Third World County how do they expect to maintain control, unless they turn Brownsville into part of the Third World Country! I guess that is the ILLEGALS plan supported by "our" Elitist Politicians and their Elitist Contributors.

Border Fencing

Congressmen debate merits of border fence in public hearing at UTB-TSC
By Kevin Sieff/The Brownsville Herald
2008-04-29 00:18:00
Construction of the U.S.-Mexico border fence might only be a few weeks away, but in Washington, D.C., the barrier continues to be a hot button issue.



The fence's significance - and its divisiveness - became clear on Monday, when eight congressmen and a number of local, state and national officials met at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College for a congressional field hearing.



U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., introduced the hearing, titled "Walls and Waivers," as a forum on the expedited construction of the border fence and its affect on the environment along the border. During the five-hour hearing, the conversation shifted to a more general evaluation of the barrier's merits.



"To examine the history, culture, economics of the border and then to decide the only solution is a 700-mile fence," Grijalva said in opening remarks, "is simply a failure of leadership."



U.S. Reps. Tom Tancredo, R-Col., and Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., both former 2008 presidential hopefuls, disagreed with Grijalva. Hunter referred to the success of a double fence in his district, on the border between San Diego and Tijuana.



"Our fence put the border gangs out of business because they lost their ability to move back and forth," said Hunter, who authored the Secure Fence Act of 2006.



Tancredo took issue with what he called "landowners' multi-culturalist views on the border."



"If you don't like the idea (of a fence), maybe you should consider building the fence around the northern part of your city," Tancredo said amid jeers from the audience.



The six other members of the congressional panel were outspoken in their opposition to the fence - and to the views of Hunter and Tancredo.



Perhaps the most substantial opposition to the barrier came from U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, a former Border Patrol chief, who called the fence a waste of the government's resources.



"For 10 percent of the border we need to consider the potential for fencing," he said. "I certainly don't think we need 700 miles of fencing."



Ronald Vitiello, chief Border Patrol agent in the Rio Grande Valley sector, said the barrier will decrease border crossings - but only if it is complemented with a boots-on-the-ground effort.



Reyes, who used to oversee the Valley's Border Patrol sector, said of Vitiello, "He's going to toe the party line - he's got to if he wants to maintain his job as chief of the sector."



To the dismay of the eight congressmen, the fence's architects at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security declined an invitation to the hearing. The absence of a DHS official left a number of questions unanswered.



"We'll seek out these answers in Washington," Grijalva said after the hearing.



The presence of 13 witnesses, many of whom live and work along the border, marked the convergence of a national political debate and a local dilemma.



"We need federal legislation that will protect borders in a humane and Christian way," said Bishop Raymundo J. Pena, of the Archdiocese of Brownsville.



"It isn't really a border to most of us who live down here," added Betty Perez, a local landowner and activist.



The articulation of local attitudes toward the fence was echoed by most of the congressmen in attendance, several of which were born along the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Texas, is a native of Brownsville.



"Nothing is going to change until immigration policy is taken care of," Napolitano said on Monday. "The fence is ludicrous."

www.brownsvilleherald.com

Americans sure are selfish imo . Soverignty is at stake . Drugs and crime.
And jobs