Border wall moves ahead as DHS completes contracting

November 18, 2008 - 4:18 PM
Dave Hendricks
Scripps Howard Foundation Wire

WASHINGTON — The government has awarded construction contracts for all but five miles of the border wall, leaving little doubt the controversial barrier will be completed, despite missing its initial deadline.

As costs and legal delays mounted in late September, the chances that the Department of Homeland Security would finish the wall by the end of the year — its congressionally mandated deadline — grew slim. Asked if the department would revise the deadline, officials in Washington pointed to an October statement by Secretary Michael Chertoff.

"It is a little hard to project because, as you pointed out, the biggest uncertainty is the court proceedings. They have been slower than, frankly, I would have projected," Chertoff said at a news conference. "I am going to give you a projection, but it is not a guarantee. I believe by the time we leave the office and hopefully by the time we are at the end of the year, we will have 90 to 95 percent either completed or at least under construction, meaning we will have broken ground."

As of Nov. 5, contractors working for the department had built more than 217 miles of pedestrian fencing and 160 miles of vehicle barriers. Contracts for a further 141 miles of vehicle barriers and 141 miles of pedestrian fencing had also been drawn up. Five miles of pedestrian fencing remained to be contracted.

In all, the department plans to build 665 miles of pedestrian fencing and vehicle barriers. About 40 of the 109 miles planned for Texas will stretch through the Rio Grande Valley, long a trouble spot for the department.
The department faced few hurdles building the wall on federal property along the border in California, Arizona and New Mexico. Texas, where much border property is privately owned, proved thornier.
Lawsuits from Valley residents slowed construction. The department, which has won all cases that have gone to court, couldn't say how many are pending.

More recently, environmental worries prompted the department to delay 14 miles of movable fencing in Roma, Rio Grande City and Los Ebanos.
"The problem is that we're building there on the river in the flood plain," said Angela de Rocha, a Customs and Border Patrol spokeswoman. "We got conflicting information from the engineering and hydrology studies."
The Army Corps of Engineers, federal contractors and the International Boundary and Water Commission are all studying whether the fencing could change water flow, which could require Mexican approval. The department isn't sure when it will begin construction.

Starr County Judge Eloy Vera, who doubts the fencing will stem the flood of drugs and immigrants that regularly pass through the county, said he's "elated" about the delay.

"We feel the wall was a waste of federal monies," Vera said. "So this delay, as far as we're concerned, is a blessing."

Locals want to secure the border, he said, but feel that increasing the number of Border Patrol agents or boosting surveillance would produce better results.

Isolated settlements across the river from Rio Grande City, Roma and Los Ebanos have made all three cities "some of our heavier drug trafficking corridors," said Dan Doty, one of the Valley's supervisory Border Patrol agents.

During the first nine months of 2008, the Drug Enforcement Agency seized 1,405 kilograms of cocaine and 74,170 kilograms of marijuana in the McAllen area. The agency's figures include packaging and don't take into account drugs intercepted by local, state or other federal agencies.
As of last week, Border Patrol agents had caught 67,741 people attempting to cross into the Valley illegally, Doty said.

The total cost of the border wall, which includes environmental studies and research designed to determine the most effective barriers, will reach about $1.6 billion, according to figures from Customs and Border Patrol.

http://www.themonitor.com/articles/moves_20008___article.html/ahead_wall.html

El Paso County Now Belongs To Mexico

Judicial Watch

Blaming the nation’s illegal immigration crisis on racism against Mexicans, commissioners in a major Texas county passed a resolution to stop construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border and halt local enforcement of immigration laws.

The El Paso County Commission voted 3-1 in favor of a measure blocking the federally mandated border wall and prohibiting local police from enforcing immigration law. The new measure also places a moratorium on immigration raids and halts all programs that criminalize illegal immigrants.

The Secure Fence Act was approved by Congress and signed into law by the president in 2006 to protect the nation’s vulnerable southern border from illegal immigration, drug smuggling and terrorism. The law authorizes the construction of hundreds of miles of fencing, more vehicle barriers, checkpoints and the use of advanced technology.

Mayors in at least three Texas cities (Brownsville, Del Rio and El Paso) along the Mexican border have refused to give the federal government access to their land to build the fence, but El Paso County is the first to pass legislation. The county with about 722,000 residents has a large illegal immigrant population that annually costs taxpayers millions of dollars to incarcerate, educate and hospitalize.

The El Paso County commissioner that introduced the legislation says the measure was necessary because the national immigration problem is due to racism against Mexicans. Commissioner Miguel Teran also pointed out that the September 11 terrorists came from the north yet the U.S. isn’t building walls over there.

http://www.immigrationwatchdog.com

Border coalition joins fence suit

By Jerry Seper
April 21, 2008

A coalition of Texas mayors, county judges and economic development commissioners is joining a federal lawsuit challenging Department of Homeland Security efforts to build 153 miles of fencing along the Texas-Mexico border.

The Texas Border Coalition (TBC), whose membership collectively represents more than 6 million people who live along the state's southern border, cited the lack of consultation required under the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2007 as the principle reason for the legal challenge.

"Sadly, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly ignored TBC's pleas for cooperation and coordination among federal, state and local governments in order to foster smart, effective border security measures," said Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, the coalition's chairman.

"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," Mr. Foster said.

The coalition is joining in a lawsuit brought last week against Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff by Cameron County landowner Eloisa Tamez. A federal judge has not yet certified the suit as a class action.

The suit challenges the way Homeland Security officials have sought the rights to build a 15-foot-high fence, using lawsuits to gain access to survey land along the border. Eagle Pass was the first city to be sued for access, and a federal judge has ordered it to open its property to surveyors.

The federal government has since brought separate lawsuits against more than 50 South Texas landowners.

Los Angeles lawyer Peter Schey, president and executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law Foundation, filed the suit for Mrs. Tamez and property owner Benito Garcia after U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen denied her motion to dismiss a pending condemnation suit. Judge Hanen has ordered her to give the government access to 3 acres of her land.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Laura Keehner has steadfastly maintained that there should be "no ambiguity about the department's top priority ... securing the homeland," adding that the department has "championed" a combination of traditional fencing, manpower and technology to help meet the goal.

"Customs and Border Patrol agents have been working diligently to reach out to and work with state and local officials, leaders and landowners all along the Southwest border," she said, adding that Homeland Security officials have held more than 18 town-hall sessions and more than 600 meetings with landowners.

The Secure Fence Act of 2006 called for the construction of 745 miles of double-layered reinforced fencing on the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, along with physical barriers, roads, lighting, cameras and sensors to establish "operational control."

Homeland Security has since whittled down the project, saying it now plans to build 370 miles of single-tier pedestrian fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers by the end of this year. The new figures are based on "operational assessments" by the Border Patrol, which identified where new fences would better secure the border.

The border coalition has said that Homeland Security is focused solely on building a fence and did not respond to its concerns about its effect on the environment, whether landowners would lose access to their property and whether there was an alternative to its construction. It also said the department failed to answer inquiries on whether the fence would disrupt the "binational way of life" on the border.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/NATION/237251976/1002&template=nextpage

US Gets Serious About Border

by Joseph Farah

Posted: 04/09/2008

I have some good news to report: Washington finally is getting serious about building a border fence.

Some $23 million has been allocated for engineering teams that will focus on smuggling tunnels and building a sturdier, impregnable border fence. The resources of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been directed to help with the project. That's the good news.

The bad news is that the border fence is not between the U.S. and Mexico. It is the fence separating the "Hamas-cidal" maniacs in the Gaza Strip from their Arab neighbors in Egypt. That's right. It turns out that fences actually can be good investments for American taxpayers -- as long as they are not along the Mexican border.

Now, why I am surprised about this? Haven't officials in Washington been telling the American people for the past two years that building border fences is a waste of time and money? Don't they claim that fences really don't keep undesirables out? Don't they tell us fences are inhumane and oppressive? Didn't they say you can't build a fence high enough to keep out bad guys?

So why is it that a border fence separating Arabs in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula from Arabs in Gaza is a good thing? Didn't Washington also tell Israelis they shouldn't build a fence to protect their civilian population from Arab terrorists on the West Bank? Why, I must ask, was it morally wrong for the Israelis to build a fence to protect their citizens from Arab terrorists, but it's the right thing for Egypt to do? In fact, it's so right for Egypt that American taxpayers have been volunteered to pick up the tab!

In case you haven't been following the news about Egypt's border problems, let me explain them to you. Way back in 1973, Israel captured the Gaza Strip from Egypt during a war Cairo started. From 1973 through August 2005, Egypt never had any border security problems, as Israel occupied the Gaza Strip. Immediately after Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip, Egypt's border nightmare began. The Gaza Strip now is controlled by the murderous band of terrorists known as Hamas. Regularly the terrorists attempt to breach the Egyptian border for the purpose of smuggling weapons into their little-armed caliphate. So Egypt has been forced to build fences and walls to keep the infiltration to a minimum.

It's funny how you don't hear many complaints about this wall. You sure hear them every time an American insists one should be erected along the U.S.' southern border. You certainly heard them during Israel's construction of its own security barrier separating itself from the future Palestinian state next door.

Do you notice the double standard? It's as noticeable as the still-open border between the U.S. and Mexico.

Yes, U.S. officials are speaking out of both sides of their mouths, telling Americans it's just not practical to build barriers along its borders while using Americans' hard-earned tax dollars to build barriers along borders of foreign countries!

Does this make you angry? Why isn't anyone else pointing out the blatant duplicity at work here? Why am I the only observer noticing what is happening? Has it escaped your notice that none of the last three major presidential candidates standing wants to build our own security fence? But we'll build one for Egypt!

What is going on here? Why are my fellow Americans standing for this outrage? Why aren't you out in the streets? Why aren't you emulating your Founding Fathers? Why aren't you doing something to take America back?

Forget the 2008 elections. They are a lost cause as far as I am concerned. It's time to march on Washington. And just watch the rascals erect fences to keep you out of your own capital!

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=25940

Submitted by EGH in El Paso

Reyes backs lawmakers' challenge to border fence

By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
Article Launched: 04/09/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT



Video: Times/Channel 9-KTSM newscast

AUSTIN -- U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes will join more than a dozen other congressmen in filing a legal brief with the U.S. Supreme Court later this month challenging federal officials' plans to bypass about 30 laws so they can quickly build the border fence.

"The Department of Homeland Security's decision to issue waivers to expedite the construction of a wasteful fence along the Southwest border is disappointing at best," Reyes said in an e-mailed statement Tuesday.

Reyes, D-Texas, and 13 others plan to submit a brief in a challenge the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife filed last month against Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. They are asking the court to rule unconstitutional the law that gave Chertoff authority to circumvent other laws to get the fence built. "We don't think that anyone is above the law," said Oliver Bernstein, a Sierra Club spokesman.

Chertoff announced last week that he would use two waivers to avoid legal and environmental challenges that could impede construction of 670 miles of fence by the end of this year.

factors and community concerns, he said, would continue to be accounted for, but construction must proceed to deter border crime and potential terrorism.
"Congress and the American public have been adamant that they want and expect border security," Chertoff said.

Critics of the fence worry not only about the political message it sends to Mexico but also about possible environmental damage.

Sierra Club and the Defenders of Wildlife asked the Su preme Court to consider their challenge to Chertoff's use of waiver authority for fencing in Arizona's San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.

The organizations argue that the law granting Chertoff waiver authority violates the constitutional separation of powers between Congress and the executive branch.

The court is expected to decide in the next couple of months whether to hear the case, Bernstein said.

Reyes said Chertoff's expansive use of waivers disrespects Congress and ignores border residents' concerns.

"I know the importance of securing our borders É ," Reyes said. "I do not, however, support DHS's continued disregard for border communities."

Frank Rodriguez, who lives in far East El Paso, said he supports the fence because it could deter illegal immigration, drug-related violence and terrorism.

"The fence will not hold (back) all of it," he said, "but I think it will protect lives."

Brandi Grissom may be reached at bgrissom@elpasotimes.com; 512-479-6606.

See video here
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_8856615

Submitted by EGH in El Paso.