At Council, Border Barrier Details, and a Federal Request
by David Crowder
City Council is to hear details about a higher, more tightly woven fence within city limits, and consider federal requests for access to build the fence.

Posted on March 17, 2008

El Paso Mayor John Cook said the City Council could refuse to give the U.S. Corps of Engineers permission today to cross city property and establish a staging area to start building a new border fence.

The 15- to 18-foot-high, reinforced steel mesh fence is to start in the Ascarate Park area and go 56 miles along the Rio Grande to two miles east of the port of entry at Fort Hancock, said Doug Mosier, the spokesman for Customs and Border Protection.

Irritated, Cook said that was more information than he had been able to get from the agency.

He said a briefing he was to have gotten about the project Monday from Bureau of Customs and Border Protection officials fell through because “they didn’t have permission from Washington to tell us what they were doing.â€