Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Farmer Says Border Wall Blocks Him from His Land

KRGV Channel 5
August 4, 2009
by Polo Sandoval

ABRAM - Wayne Boehmer says the border wall is keeping him from the land he needs to make a living. To get to the land on the other side Boehmer has to go a mile down the levy through a small gate. He says it's a huge headache.

The farmer's home is visible through the fence's steel beams. It literally separates him from everyone else. "If it were up to me, I'd take a tractor trailer and take the damn thing down," he told us.

For awhile he was able to live with it. He used a large gap in the wall to get in and out of his 700 acres along the river. This week, workers closed the gap - cutting him off. "We've had no problems until like I said, we just come up and all of the sudden we couldn't get out."

Boehmer explained that now, "we have to head to the west a mile, cross the levee and come back a mile from where our main entrance is."

He says going two extra miles doesn't just waste time. The new entrance which is 20-feet wide is too small for equipment like his 24-foot-wide combine.

Boehmer says he needs a gate wide enough to get his work done before the next harvest season. He says the construction company building the wall, Ballenger Construction, promised him a fully-functioning gate in the next month.

The company hasn't returned NEWSCHANNEL 5's phone calls.

http://www.krgv.com/news/local/story/Farmer-Says-Border-Wall-Blocks-Him-from-His-Land/b-7HBmZHd0OM8xjYHmT7qg.cspx

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