Fence in the works near local border crossing
By Darren Meritz For the Sun-News
Article Launched: 04/27/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

EL PASO — Construction of new border fencing near Anapra and at the Santa Teresa Port of Entry in New Mexico has caught the attention of environmental and political opponents of the federal government's effort to build a border barrier aimed at stopping illegal immigration.

"Obviously, we're horrified by it," said Laurence Gibson, chairman of the El Paso group of the Sierra Club. "This is an ecological disaster. The Sierra Club's position against it is extremely strong and we're just really, really upset by it."

Officials with the El Paso sector of the U.S. Border Patrol have confirmed that about 3.75 miles of fencing is currently under construction on the east and west sides of the Santa Teresa Port of Entry and near the Camino Real Landfill.

Ramiro Cordero, a supervisory Border Patrol agent in the El Paso sector, which includes all of New Mexico, said the fencing projects will use a post and rail design with wire mesh intended to create both a barrier for vehicles and a pedestrian deterrent.

Using the same design, the Department of Homeland Security has scheduled to begin early this summer a third stretch of border fence a little more than a mile in length, officials said.

Despite the controversy created since Congress approved funding for construction of a border fence and border security equipment, Cordero said he's heard only a limited number of complaints, even at a series of forums organized to share information on the project with the community earlier this year.

One opponent of the border fence in El Paso was particularly upset with the Bush administration's decision to supercede local and environmental laws to build the fence. Iliana Holguin, executive director of Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services, called it "a horrible-looking fence" that's already become an unfriendly fixture in the landscape.

"I think aside from being completely ineffective to combating illegal immigration, it's a horrible symbol, especially for El Paso, which has always prided itself in being a binational community with Ciudad Juárez," she said. "What supporters are failing to see is it's our government's immigration laws that are causing the problem."

Fencing in El Paso ultimately is planned to stretch 56.7 miles, 15 to 18 feet tall, with 21 miles of lighting and two miles of road upgrades as part of Primary Fence Project 225, the 225 miles of border fencing the government hopes to complete in 2008.

Darren Meritz writes for the El Paso Times, a member of the Texas-New Mexico Newspapers Partnership, and can be reached at dmeritz@elpasotimes.com
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