Thread: Hutchinson's Border Fence Move Raising A Stink

Hutchison's border fence move raising a stink
Web Posted: 01/10/2008 11:31 PM CST

Lynn Brezosky
Express-News

BROWNSVILLE — Some conservatives are labeling U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison a traitor after she slipped an amendment into the federal budget bill passed last month that some say effectively kills the border fence.
The conservative radio world and blogosphere has been buzzing with outcry that the amendment — which removed the requirement under the Secure Fence Act for a double-layered fence and gave Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff flexibility in its placement — did just that.


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Nationally syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin decried the "incredible shrinking border fence." Others called Hutchison "Benedict Arnold" and said the Texas Republican used the "cover of Christmas" to ram the measure through.

Hutchison says there's a lot of misinformation out there.

"Border patrol agents reported that coyotes and drug-runners were altering their routes as fencing was deployed, so the amendment gives our agents discretion to locate the fence where necessary to achieve operational control of our border," she said.

Customs and Border Protection said it is committed to building the fence and this week announced plans to take legal action against 102 border landowners, including 71 in Texas who were not letting federal workers on their land to survey the areas.

Spokeswoman Laura Keehner said landowners had gotten warning letters in December. She said landowners who did not receive letters, such as those in the tiny Hidalgo County town of Granjeno — where officials feared an early fence proposal would split the town in half — could assume their land was not being considered for the fence at this time.

The amendment was part of the omnibus spending bill Congress approved Dec. 19 and President Bush signed Dec. 26.

The section under contention reads: "... nothing in this paragraph shall require the Secretary of Homeland Security to install fencing, physical barriers, roads, lighting, cameras and sensors in a particular location along an international border of the United States, if the Secretary determines that the use or placement of such resources is not the most appropriate means to achieve and maintain operational control over the international border at such location."

It superseded the original language, which called for double-layered fencing in specific places.

"We don't appreciate the way it was put through," said Ron De Jong of Grassfire.org.

"It was done behind the scenes, it was done last minute, it wasn't done in front of the people," De Jong said. "I personally take offense to it and I think most Americans who want our borders secure take offense to it."

New York Rep. Peter King, author of the Secure Fence Act signed in October 2006, said the amendment was "either a blatant oversight or a deliberate attempt to disregard the border security of our country."

"As it's written, the omnibus language guts the Secure Fence Act almost entirely," he said.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, a San Diego, Calif., Republican, said the amendment made the fence symbolic at best.

Hunter spokesman Joe Kasper said the double fencing would force illegal border crossers to scale two barriers, with a roadway in the middle that allowed the Border Patrol to nab them.

Fence supporters, meanwhile, feel the Department of Homeland Security has gradually been reneging on the plan, with initial plans for 854 miles of double-layered fencing in five locations whittled to 370 miles of what may be single-layered fencing, Kasper said.

Almost two years after the bill passed, only 5.2 miles more of double-layer fence has been built, in Arizona, with 70 more miles single-layered, he said.

"What we've seen so far to date is an agency that is not entirely supportive of the border fencing initiative," Kasper said. "At a time when our southern border is on fire, it doesn't make sense to limit the authority or limit our ability to enforce immigration laws."

Hutchison's chief of staff, Marc Short, said the outcry was unfair.

Hutchison's amendment was introduced in May and unanimously passed the Senate three separate times, he said.

"CBP said they needed more flexibility, that one size doesn't fit all," Short said. "Hunter was elected to represent San Diego. Sen. Hutchison has to represent Texas."

Unlike other border states, much of the land on the Texas border is privately owned.

Local business leaders and politicians were incensed to learn in May that a map was already circulating showing a fence that could cut farmers from water, wildlife from habitat and cities from the river.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said Hutchison wrote a good amendment that will allow environmental and property right concerns in border communities to be considered.

"It gives flexibility to the secretary to look at alternative means," he said.

Texas landowners just see themselves in the middle.

In Granjeno, residents say they have not gotten any threatening letters and are hopeful the government has decided not to cut through their town.

Landowner Eloisa Garcia Tamez, a professor at the University of Texas at Brownsville, said she'll fight to the end to keep the government off the last of her ancestors' 1767 land grant.

"The value of the land is only to me," she said. "In other words, it's not for sale."



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lbrezosky@express-news.net




http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/ ... b7f16.html

"Hunter was elected to represent San Diego. Sen. Hutchison has to represent Texas."

Kay Bailey hasn't represented Texas since she got to Washington.

Vote this corruption out of office Texas....

Rest assured we are doing the same with our corrupt politicians in Florida

Originally Posted by AirborneSapper7

Vote this corruption out of office Texas....

Rest assured we are doing the same with our corrupt politicians in Florida

not going to be easy,. the Biotch was re-elected last November

not going to be easy,. the Biotch was re-elected last November

Can the biotch be recalled

Well now isn't the rest of the fence that is costing the taxpayers Billions of dollars going to be really effective with a huge gaping hole in it.

Are these people for real!