April 15, 2008, 7:26PM
Texas Border Coalition to join suit over border fence


By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press Writer
© 2008 The Associated Press


McALLEN, Texas — A coalition of Texas border mayors and county executives stretching from El Paso to Brownsville decided to join a proposed class-action lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Tuesday.

The Texas Border Coalition's executive committee voted to join the lawsuit filed in early February by Cameron County landowner Eloisa Tamez. A federal judge has not yet certified that lawsuit as a class action.

That lawsuit challenged the way Homeland Security went about suing property owners to get temporary access to their land to survey for the border fence.

"We are joining this lawsuit to protect the interests of communities across Texas and to minimize the impact the border wall will have on our environment, culture, commerce and quality of life," Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster said in a statement. Foster is chairman of the coalition.

Eagle Pass was the first municipality to be sued for access to city property. A federal judge ordered the city to open its property to surveyors before the city could even muster a response. Since then, the federal government has sued more than 50 South Texas landowners.

Peter Schey, who filed the lawsuit in the name of Tamez and property owner Benito Garcia, said he will have to discuss with the coalition whether it should join the Tamez lawsuit or file a separate, but similar, lawsuit. Schey is president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law.

The coalition's involvement "will make courts focus better on rights of municipalities that have been largely ignored up to now," Schey said. "It's more likely to get the attention of Secretary Chertoff."

Calls to the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection late Tuesday were not immediately returned.

"This situation cries out for class wide treatment," Schey said. "I don't think any significant relief will be received by property owners unless a class is certified."

The case will face an uphill battle.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen has already deliberated on and ruled against many of the same arguments Schey makes in the proposed class-action lawsuit.

Schey raised similar points in defending Tamez from the government's condemnation lawsuit. Hanen denied Tamez's motion to dismiss the condemnation lawsuit Thursday, ordering her to give the government temporary access to three acres of her land.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5703808.html