Feds may acquire more land for new border fence construction, CBP proposal shows

The Monitor
May 1, 2013
by Jacqueline Armendariz

 
McALLEN — About 100 people in Starr and Hidalgo counties could be impacted under a proposed construction plan regarding the final sections of the border fence, with more than half living at a nursing home, federal documents show.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection draft plan differs from that of the International Boundary and Water Commission, the bi-national agency tasked with regulating the U.S-Mexico border and water releases along the Rio Grande.


The plan also hinges on whether funding is available to finish the job. As recently as March, federal officials said the remaining border fence project was halted due to a lack of funding.

But the border security component of Congress’ comprehensive immigration reform debate opens up the possibility that could change.

The path of the wall likely is not a surprise for residents of the three area communities impacted — Rio Grande City, Roma and Los Ebanos — as federal legislation for the project goes back to 2006.

However, two documents recently released by CBP show a another path for the fence that will likely mean a second round of property condemnations, Scott Nicol, chair of the Sierra Club Borderlands Team, said.
Nicol warns the fence plan will have serious consequences for humans and wildlife, which roam through the nearby federal refuge, because of the flood plains there.

“It’s an issue of CBP saying the water’s just going to pass right through these walls. The evidence with walls of almost the same design, in the past, shows that’s not the case,” he said. “Basically, if you stick a wall in the middle of a flood plain it’s going to act as a dam.”

He points to examples of the same fence construction in Arizona that, in some instances, have clogged with debris that eventually backed up as high as six feet.

The environmental advocacy group obtained the CBP records through the Freedom of Information Act and released them to The Monitor. One is a proposed fence plan dated November 30, 2012 from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The other is a CBP Facilities Management and Engineering department planning document from March 1 titled “Comprehensive Immigration Reform Planning.”

The bi-partisan group of senators known as the Gang of Eight rolled out their comprehensive immigration reform bill last month. While the impact of the federal government’s sequestration is felt, the legislation included $1.5 billion for new border wall construction — the final pieces of which were never constructed in the three towns.

When contacted for this story, CBP cited an email exchange with Nicol that had been forwarded to The Monitor. In the email dated March 29, CBP stated it worked closely with the IBWC on the proposed plan to address flooding concerns.

“On February 2012, IBWC’s Principal Engineer issued a letter approving that the referenced fence segments could be built without adversely impacting the floodplain, so long as CBP follows the proposed alignment and design, as well as provides maintenance and provides any future repairs,” the email reads in part.

However, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers plan from November notes areas of deviation, due to various engineering reasons, from the path approved by the IBWC and developed with flood concerns in mind.

Bill Brooks, CBP branch chief of the agency’s southwest border media division, said CBP’s statement in the email confirming fence construction in the three cities has been delayed due to a lack of funding hasn’t changed.

“The so-called ‘Gang of 8’ immigration bill is proposed legislation and we cannot make decisions on or even speculate on the outcome of proposed legislation,” Brooks said in a statement to The Monitor.

This week, an IBWC spokesperson said the agency had not received the border fence plan from November to evaluate it.

CBP notes in one of the documents that the boundary commission agency warns it’s an international treaty violation if flood waters are pushed away from the U.S. into Mexico.

Nicols said that could to happen if the government’s fence path is followed, while gaps in the wall could also flood even more U.S. lands north of the structure during a substantial rain event.

The CBP document titled “Comprehensive Immigration Reform Planning” outlines a timeline indicating that within the next six months the government will notify property owners it wants their land.

The nursing home within the potential condemnation area, according to maps, is likely Retama Manor Nursing Center in Rio Grande City. A staff member who answered the facility’s phone last week said he was not aware the nursing home may need to relocate. A representative for the nursing home’s parent company in Atlanta said no one would be available for comment on the situation until next week.

In an email dated March 29, sent to the Sierra Club and released to The Monitor, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, also said CBP told him fence construction was on hold because of a lack of funding.

Cuellar’s office sent a statement Friday that has no mention of the phrase “border fence” in response to a series of questions from The Monitor on the subject, including whether he is aware of the proposal that might cause nearly 100 residents in his congressional district to relocate.

“It is our responsibility to ensure that our law enforcement officers have the necessary tools and equipment to keep our communities safe,” Cuellar said, in part. “We ought to pass an immigration bill that that enhances border security and ensures a comprehensive guest worker plan to provide opportunities for those hard working individuals and families who have come to our great country.”

Within one of the documents, the government notes 95 percent of cases result in condemnation, meaning property owners are taken to court for their land. Nicol notes most of those who could be affected by the plan won’t likely have the resources to take the government to court to fight for the best price for their land.
“They’re sort of guaranteed to get shafted,’ he said.

The wall, he said, is nothing more than a political prop, particularly when one considers the number of immigrants entering the country illegally has decreased likely due to an economic downturn and increasing cartel drug violence.

“It’s something you can walk in front of a look tough. The fact that it doesn’t do anything doesn’t matter,” he said. “I think it’s kind of despicable to tear up people’s property and wildlife refuges and potentially cause flooding that could ruin homes and drown people.”

 http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/article_6c0bf08a-b45b-11e2-91e6-001a4bcf6878.html

USACE Galveston awards contract for environmental monitoring at border fence construction project

DVIDS News
by Isidro Reyna

GALVESTON, Texas -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District, awarded a contract to Gulf South Research Corporation, an 8(a) small business, in the amount of $1,112,777 for environmental monitoring of gate construction for the Department of Homeland Security.

The contract allows for the continuation of environmental monitoring of the border fence construction in the Del Rio and Rio Grande Valley sectors, as well as monitoring of gate construction.

“This contract will provide for monitors to be present to oversee border fence construction in order to identify, avoid, and minimize any adverse impacts to biological or cultural resources that may be caused by construction,” said Mark Garza, a biologist with USACE Galveston’s Environmental Section.

According to Garza, environmental monitoring has occurred since border fence construction was initiated as part of an environmental stewardship plan prepared by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“This plan contains efforts to avoid potential environmental impacts and also outlines the best management practices developed to avoid or minimize adverse impacts resulting from border fence construction,” said Garza.

http://www.dvidshub.net/news/75737/usace-galveston-awards-contract-environmental-monitoring-border-fence-construction-project

Efforts underway to stop border breaches

KVOA Tucson
May 21,2010
by Lorraine Rivera

LUKEVILLE - The steel mesh pedestrian fence at the Lukeville Port of Entry is just more than five miles long.

"You can see where they come through with cutters and just cut that thing." Patrol Agent Devin Reno is the Community Outreach Officer at the Ajo Border Patrol Station.

He said, "I don't know if you can see down there, you can see the footprints we track." He points through a rectangle cut out, measuring about 18 by 7 inches, in the mesh fence less than a tenth of a mile from the Lukeville Port of Entry.

He says this is one of the many ways illegal immigrants are trying to get across the border.

"These individual cuts, where they come in and cut the fence, that's what we call a breach," says Reno. "Any where we have a cut in the vehicle barricade or fencing of any kind we call it a breach."

There is an operation in place to address the problem.
Reno walks along a stretch of the fence and points to markings. "Each date is a date that they made a repair here. And then the actual grid coordinates, so that the Army Corp of Engineers knows where to go to make the repair."

Contractors for the Army Corp of Engineers respond with welding gear and materials. They cut panels of steel mesh and weld it over the hole.

From the Ajo Station, Border Patrol agents report, on average, two breaches a day.

"It's very frustrating because every time there's a cut here. There's got to be a guy sitting and watching that particular hole. And in the meantime, half a mile up the road we can have another guy making a cut."

That is why the contractors must respond within 24 hours to make the fix.

News 4 talked to several people working in Lukeville and Why about the issue. They tell us the illegal immigrants come in and head north as quickly as possible.

"Yes sir. They just go by," says Sam Montes who has lived in Why for 4 years. "There's no business around here. We got nothing to lose here."

While some do not feel an immediate threat in the area, the struggle goes on to patch up with the breaches and to keep the border secure.

http://www.kvoa.com/news/efforts-underway-to-stop-border-breaches/

Fired lawyer complains of border agency misconduct

Associated Press / Houston Chronicle
September 24, 2009
by Michelle Roberts

SAN ANTONIO — A former lawyer for the little-known federal agency that helps control the flow of the Rio Grande and the U.S. boundary with Mexico said Thursday that he was fired after complaining of gross mismanagement, including funds misappropriation and repair of levees that the agency knew would be useless.

Robert McCarthy was fired as general counsel from the International Boundary and Water Commission in July, days after he disclosed his concerns to federal auditing agencies. He complained to the auditing agency after IBWC leadership ignored several written opinions, he said.

"I felt like I was talking to a brick wall. I did put several opinions in writing as these issues were surfacing and never received any positive response," said McCarthy.

Commissioner C.W. "Bill" Ruth, appointed by President George W. Bush in November after the previous commissioner died in a plane crash, cited those opinions in his termination letter, accusing McCarthy of "failure to support me or other members of the executive staff in a constructive or collegial manner."

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a group that advocates for government employees, filed a whistle-blower retaliation complaint Thursday on behalf of McCarthy with the Merit Systems Protection Board. An administrative judge will hear the case and make a recommendation to the board on whether McCarthy should get his job back.

IBWC spokeswoman Sally Spener said the agency, headquartered in El Paso, could not comment on McCarthy's case or allegations because they were part of a personnel matter and under litigation.

McCarthy, who spent eight years as an Interior Department lawyer before joining the IBWC in January, said he was ordered to sign a cost-sharing agreement with the Department of Homeland Security on the construction of levees that would help settle a fight over the border fence in the Rio Grande Valley. But McCarthy felt the arrangement violated federal law prohibiting one agency from subsidizing the purposes of another agency.

In the case of misappropriated funds, "an employee who doesn't report that is just as liable as one who approves it," he said.

McCarthy said he was also concerned about the agency's decision to repair levees in Presidio, Texas, the site of flooding last fall. The agency had consultant reports saying the levees couldn't be repaired and will be undermined by flooding again, but went ahead anyway.

"I call that a 'cosmetic levee.' It looks like they've done something but they haven't," he said.

McCarthy's personnel complaint filed with the merit system board paints the IBWC as an agency plagued by rogue employees and lax standards. Among the other accusations:

_ An executive staff member wiretapped a group of employees after he didn't get a job he wanted in the agency.

_ Several employees received unlawful salary increases over the objections of personnel staff.

_ A pair of executive staff members made false anonymous reports to the State Department about an engineer who attempted to implement changes at the agency.

_ A multimillion-dollar levee contract was solicited under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act without using federal standards, instead plugging in specifications from a local project that may not comply with federal rules.

IBWC, a binational agency responsible for maintaining the international border, is part of the State Department for funding purposes but is supposed to answer directly to the president.

Based on McCarthy's allegations, the General Accounting Office has an investigation pending and is coordinating with the State Department Office of Inspector General.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6635382.html#

Ortiz opposes seizing city land for border fence

Brownsville Herald
May 17, 2009
by Emma Perez-Trevino

As the U.S. Department of Homeland Security moved to take possession of city property for a border fence between Brownsville and Matamoros, U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz expressed his displeasure.

"I am not pleased," Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, said of DHS' move amid negotiations with the city on a proposed levee-temporary fence alternative. Ortiz's spokesman Jose Borjon said Friday that the congressman had asked DHS not to begin proceedings to take possession of city land.

The Brownsville Herald also learned that Ortiz is attempting to obtain funding for the levee-temporary fence alternative.

This comes on the heels of DHS' trip to the federal courthouse May 12 to file the motion to take possession of 15.919 acres of city land, although DHS officials say talks with city officials continue in an effort to reach an agreement on a temporary fence.

Under the proposed agreement, DHS would build temporary fences on the East Loop levee and between the Gateway International Bridge and the B&M Bridge. Control of the property would revert to the city when the city provides replacement barriers, including construction of a new levee.

The temporary fence would be removed by DHS if there is funding. If there were no federal funding, its removal would be the city's responsibility. The city also would bear the cost of the replacement barriers.

"But at what cost to the city?" Mayor Pat M. Ahumada Jr., who favors developing a dam as a natural barrier, said of the proposed agreement on the table.

The mayor said the cost to the city could be as much as $13 million and that the city does not have the money.

Ahumada said that instead of fighting among themselves, city officials should have been using the time to strategize in opposition to the border fence.

Ahumada also said that Ortiz had initially supported the weir project as a barrier and wondered why the congressman is now supporting a temporary fence. Borjon said that Ortiz continues to support the weir project, but not as an alternative to the fence.

Regarding the motion for possession that DHS filed, Ahumada said, "What do we do now? What I've said all along; we should be looking for a third party to mediate and that is U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen."

The federal case is before Hanen's court.

DHS' motion is slated to be on Hanen's court docket June 1.

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/city-98127-fence-ortiz.html

Lawsuit alleges feds improperly withheld information regarding border fence

March 11, 2009
Brownsville Herald / The Monitor
by Laura Tillman

The consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen filed a lawsuit on behalf of a University of Texas School of Law professor on Wednesday, claiming that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers withheld documents about the U.S.-Mexico border fence.

Clinical Law Professor Denise Gilman said she made a Freedom of Information Act request in April on behalf of the University of Texas Working Group on Human Rights and the Border Wall.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court Washington, D. C., claims that Gilman requested documents identifying properties that would be affected by fence construction, maps of where the border fence would be located, the agreements sought between property owners and the federal government, and property appraisals, among other documents.

In October, the working group of UT faculty and students told the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that the location of the border fence inordinately affected minorities and low-income individuals.

"After we prepared our report we continued to push for documents and transparency and came up short," Gilman said. "We were unable to get the things that are necessary to continue with this massive investigation."

Even though the Army Corps of Engineers initially estimated that the documents included in the request would be so voluminous that the working group would have to pay an estimated $54,000 in photocopying charges, the group has received less than two dozen documents.

"There has been an apparent dispute between CBP and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as to who has proper custody of the documents," Gilman said. "I don't think it's proper for us to have been denied, but given the time, they could have resolved those disputes."

DHS and the Army Corps of Engineers did not return phone calls requesting comment on the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says that government agencies have 20-working days to respond to FOIA requests. In exceptional cases, the agencies can ask for a 10-working day extension before fulfilling requests. But Public Citizen lawyer Margaret Kwoka says that each of the three agencies inappropriately responded to Gilman's requests in different ways.

CBP waited beyond the 20-working day period to tell Gilman they would need more time, but then did not contact her again, said Kwoka. After contacting CBP on several occasions, Gilman received two documents with redactions on Dec. 18, Kwoka said. She made an appeal for the redacted sections to be released and received no response until Jan. 30, when she was told her request was still being processed.

According to Kwoka, the Army Corps of Engineers responded to Gilman on May 6, asking her to narrow her request. She complied and was told she would receive more information by June 25. At that point, the corps denied Gilman's request in full, said Kwoka, adding that Gilman appealed but received no response. Gilman contacted the agency repeatedly until she was told the Army Corps of Engineers would release some documents in mid-January, said Kwoka. The Army Corps of Engineers did release some documents on Jan. 29. On Feb. 19 the agency released a few additional documents which had redactions, Kwoka said.

DHS simply deferred Gilman's request to CBP and did not provide any documents, according to Kwoka. But the lawsuit claims that DHS still has some of the requested information.

Kwoka says Gilman has exhausted every avenue of the FOIA appeals process before filing a lawsuit, and waited nearly a year after her initial requests for the agencies to comply.

"We're hoping to point out the broken nature of a system in which a requester can wait for a year and the response of agencies is to claim each document is being held by the other," Kwoka said. "Agencies can't shirk their responsibilities by passing the buck. An effort has to be made to comply with deadlines."

Gilman says that the motives behind the delay are unclear.

"What I can say with certainty is that there was a lack of transparency throughout this process," Gilman said. "Whether or not that was the intention, it certainly had the effect of making it easier (for the border fence) to move forward. I hope that under this new administration, which has made it a point to make transparency and access pillars, documents will be released and given consideration before the wall is completed."

Public Citizen works pro bono and takes on "impact litigation," or lawsuits that aim to set legal precedents. Kwoka says fixing the FOIA system would have a positive impact on future requests.

"Information is frequently only as good as its timeliness," Kwoka said. "If you don't get information about a decision making process until after the decision is made, there's no chance for public input. Often it's really just that the agency doesn't have enough resources. Whatever the motive, it's unacceptable."

http://www.themonitor.com/articles/gilman_24167___article.html/documents_kwoka.html

Border-fence lights worry astronomers

Green Valley News and Sun
April 5, 2007


Astronomers in Southern Arizona and elsewhere in the Southwest have a new worry — possible light pollution from planned border fences and walls.

Boeing Co. is designing a 28-mile “virtual fence” near Sasabe on the border southwest of Green Valley.

Dan Brocious, spokesman for the Whipple Observatory on Mount Hopkins, said there has been talk of “stadium lights” in some border areas.

Astronomers are always concerned that man-made lights will diminish the night’s darkness when telescopes are trained upward.

“It’s not just here that more border lighting is a concern,” said Brocious.

He named several observatories that could be affected, including Kitt Peak on the Tohono O’odham Reservation, the new binocular telescope at Mount Graham, an Iowa State observatory at Elgin, the Guillermo Haro observatory at Cananea, Mexico, and others in Texas and California.

He said there is a lot of “glary, sidewise light” in the San Diego-Tijuana area.Brocious said astronomers have had good relations with the Border Patrol, but sometimes they request it to keep their lights pointed down, not sideways or up.

Besides the professional observatories there are several smaller, private observatories, including ones at Patagonia Lake and in the Sonoita area.

Brocious is frequently asked to talk about light pollution. When the new Wal-Mart Center was being developed he spoke against a proposal to exceed Pima County’s county’s lighting limits on the parking lot.

The International Dark-Sky Association is devoted to preserving the cloak of night-time darkness.Last September Boeing won a $67 million contract to build a high-tech virtual fence.

“What we are looking to build is a 21st century virtual fence” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.Other estimates on the cost of a 700-mile virtual fence run to $2 billion.The first phase, near Sasabe, will take three years to install.

Chertoff said because the topography along the border changes from place to place, “We don’t want to lock ourselves” into any one technology.Brocious said he hopes the virtual fence will rely on infrared light and other less-instrusive technology such as night scopes and sensors.

http://www.gvnews.com/articles/2007/04/06/news/news02.txt

Ancient village found on U.S.-Mexico border

'Gateway community' uncovered during preparations for fence

Sierra Vista Herald
January 9, 2009

TUBAC — The construction of the fence along the U.S.-Mexico border in 2007 led to the find of a prehistoric village east of the San Pedro River.

Some of those findings were presented Thursday evening to the Tubac/Santa Cruz County Chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society. Twenty people attended the event.“The San Pedro is a special place,” said archaeologist Maren Hopkins, the project director.

Hopkins said the village was probably the biggest data recovery project that she has directed. The 27-year-old has been digging for 10 years in many places in Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico.

Evidence found at the “Upper San Pedro Village” indicates that it was a crossroads, or a type of “gateway community,” said Hopkins, who works for Northland Research Inc., which has offices in Flagstaff, Tempe and Tucson.

“It’s sort of an area that’s on the periphery of a lot of other areas that we do understand,” Hopkins said. “It’s a peripheral site to the Tucson Basin … it’s peripheral to all these areas. So these people were kind of a mix of people. It was frontier then, just like it is now.”

The village is believed to have existed from around A.D. 700 to 1200, Hopkins said, based on ceramics analysis. There appear to be some Hohokam characteristics, but it is yet uncertain exactly who lived there.

Archaeologists found 23 pit houses, 14 possible pit houses, 97 thermal pits, a number of storage pits, five dog burials and 69 human burials. As is customary in this region, the human remains have all been repatriated to the Tohono O’Odham Indian Reservation.There was an interesting artifact found at the site that Hopkins had not seen before. She calls it a “stone jaw bone.” It has a serrated edge, and she firmly believes it was used for scraping animal hides. Several of these implements were found at the site, which also yielded “more deer bone than I’ve ever seen in my life,” she said.

Westland was contracted to do archaeological work for the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers and the U.S. Department Homeland Security so the agencies could comply with federal archaeological laws. In October 2007, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff pushed ahead with the fence, winning federal court approval of his waiving of environmental restrictions.

“It is a sensitive subject,” Hopkins said of the border politics.

She told the Tubac archaeology society how complicated her work was because of the numerous government and private agencies involved. Those included ranchers on the U.S. and Mexican sides, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and the Arizona National Guard, just to name a few.She described how one time “the No. 2 guy” from Homeland Security flew to the San Pedro River archaeological site in a Black Hawk helicopter and asked the scientists, “Are you OK?”

At that moment, some of the nearby Mexican ranchers were delivering a plateful of delicious tacos, which the archaeologists had become accustomed to. The Homeland Security official asked, “Are they bugging you?” The archaeologists answered, “No.”

Hopkins did say there was genuine concern for archaeologists’ safety when they were working in the notoriously-violent smuggling corridor of Altar Valley.

But, overall, the archaeologists had to deal with multiple jurisdictions and a lot of curious people. “We just had people around us all the time,” she said.

Mexican archaeologists were among the interested parties, and their American counterparts are collaborating with them as always, Hopkins said.

One restriction posed by the U.S. government was that the archaeologists could only dig 5 feet deep, because that was as far as they were digging for the fence’s footers. Below that depth, “The archaeology, I guarantee, keeps going,” Hopkins said.

On another axis, the archaeologists were allowed to dig to a limit of 60 feet wide. That dimension related to President Theodore Roosevelt’s 60-foot-wide easement running the length of the U.S.-Mexico border from California to Texas. The “Roosevelt Reservation” was created “for the purpose of homeland security,” Hopkins said.

This “stripping” method of archaeology, done mainly by backhoe, ultimately extended for three-tenths of a mile and excavated 7,500 tons of soil from three-fourths of an acre.

The site has been reburied. Hopkins has not been back there for many months.“There’s a fence there now,” she said.

Herald/Review City Editor Ted Morris can be reached at 515-4614 or by e-mail at cityeditor@svherald.com.

Construction workers busted with 600 pounds of pot

Associated Press / Houston Chronicle
January 9, 2008

McALLEN, Texas — Three construction workers for the company building part of the border fence and an international trade bridge to Mexico remained in a South Texas jail Friday after they were caught with nearly 600 pounds of marijuana.

Alberto Montiel, Ruben Vela and Rolando Flores, all of eastern Hidalgo County, were arrested Wednesday at a Burger King not far from the Rio Grande, said Mission Police Sgt. Jody Tittle.

Police received a tip that a van and an SUV were transporting drugs. A patrol in the area spotted the vehicles driving together and followed them into the Burger King parking lot. Through the windows in both vehicles police saw large bundles containing marijuana. In total, the 12 bundles weighed 596 pounds, Tittle said.

The drivers were wearing reflective vests and when asked, said they worked for Houston-based Williams Brothers Construction Co., Tittle said.

A receptionist at Williams Brothers in Houston said no one was available to comment late Friday.
The men were arrested close to the Anzalduas International Bridge project, which will cross the Rio Grande just west of Granjeno. The $20.2 million segment of border fence that Williams Brothers is building is in eastern Hidalgo County near Progreso.

All three men remained in the Hidalgo County Detention Center on Friday evening, each held in lieu of a $250,000 bond for drug possession. It was unknown whether they had lawyers.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6203442.html#

Popular border spot won't be accessible

San Diego Union-Tribune
January 9, 2008

SOUTH COUNTY — Frequent visitors to Border Field State Park, along with park officials, are expressing surprise and dismay over a sudden reversal of plans by U.S. Customs and Border Protection that will result in the permanent closing of a popular cross-border meeting spot.

A secondary border fence running the length of the park to the ocean is being built 90 feet north of the existing fence that marks the U.S.-Mexico border.

Until recently, federal officials said the plan was to have a gate in the secondary fence allowing public access to a small area known as Friendship Park. That area surrounds a marble obelisk dating to 1851 that marks the point where the United States and Mexico agreed on a border after the Mexican War.

The area surrounding the monument, which is accommodated within a cutout in the existing steel-mesh fence, has long been a popular spot for families to gather and visit with relatives on the Mexican side.

At a meeting with Border Patrol officials Tuesday, Border Field State Park Superintendent Clay Phillips and several other attendees were informed that plans had changed.

“They told us that there would be no public access of any kind or any form,” Phillips said. “I can say I was surprised, since the Border Patrol had designed the project with a pedestrian gate and with a walkway to the monument, and at least verbally made some indication that there would be some kind of controlled public access.”

Until recently, state and federal officials had been working out the details of public access to a roughly 40-foot-wide space surrounding the monument.

Lloyd Easterling, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in Washington, D.C., said the change of heart came after federal officials concluded that it would be too difficult for agents to monitor a public gathering place between the two fences.

“It would be requiring our agents to constantly monitor interactions at the primary fence, watching for people passing small items back and forth,” Easterling said.

Easterling said that while visitors frequently pass innocuous items such as food back and forth through small openings, others pass fraudulent documents or drugs.

For those who hoped to return to Friendship Park once construction was finished in May, the reversal is a disappointment.

“I may be in denial. I am not willing to accept it quite yet,” said Daniel Watman, an organizer of Border Meetup, which has conducted yoga, surfing and other events at the fence to promote cultural interaction.

Easterling said that once the second fence is complete, there will be no access to the primary fence at the beach, either. Visitors to Border Field State Park will be able to see through the two fences into Mexico, but only people on the Mexican side will be able to access the monument.

Phillips said state parks officials are hoping there is a way to negotiate a middle ground that would allow some public access without compromising security.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jan/09/1m9park002037-popular-border-spot-wont-be-accessib/

City Representative Denied Access To Rio Bosque Park

KFOX TV
January 7, 2008

EL PASO, Texas -- City Rep. Eddie Holguin came to Rio Bosque park a few weeks ago to give some water to a group of people protesting the border fence, but he got stopped in his car here, and was told he couldn't go any farther.

"When I went out there, there were Border Patrol agent blocking access to the park, actually closed the gate, and basically told me that I couldn't go in," said Holguin.

Holguin said he had to get out of his car and walk for miles.

"I don't believe that anyone has authority to block access to a city park that city taxpayers are paying for," he said.

KFOX went looking for answers. We uncovered that while Rio Bosque Park is city property, the road into it is owned by the El Paso County Water Improvement District. But in November, Homeland Security and the Army Corps of Engineers, through a court order, took control of the road.

"Allows the Corp of Engineers and Homeland Security, and their contractors to come in and out and travel that area to build the border fence," said Jesus Reyes, general manager of the El Paso County Water Improvement District.

The Army Corps of Engineers would not comment, saying it was an issue with Border Patrol and the water district. Upon uncovering this information, Border Patrol did not return KFOX's calls.

Before learning more about the road, Border Patrol officials said they were there on behalf of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC). However, the IBWC has no control of the road, or the park.

"The court order does not allow Homeland Security to turn anybody away, unless they go into emergency situations there, and I am quite surprised that they would turn the city councilman away," said Reyes.

Holguin, weeks later, is still upset over the incident.

"I'm an elected official, I couldn't get to a park that I represent, how do they treat people that aren't elected officials?" Holguin told KFOX.

http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/18434305/detail.html?taf=elp

Border gulch fill-in faces the wet test

San Diego Union-Tribune
November 27, 2008

Three months after border fence construction began in a coastal canyon known as Smuggler's Gulch, crews have all but filled in the once-deep breach.

Since mid-August, contractors have cut more than 1.2 million cubic yards of dirt from surrounding hills and deposited it into the canyon, creating a 140-foot-tall earthen berm that vehicles can now drive across.

While the fence has yet to be built, Border Patrol officials estimate the controversial fill-in is about a week from completion.

The project was for years contested by environmentalists who feared sediment runoff could damage the Tijuana River estuary, a claim countered by federal officials who promised to re-seed and stabilize the site to prevent erosion.

Now, with start of the winter rains this week and more rain expected, observers on both sides will get to see how well the massive project holds up.

“This is the first test,” said Oscar Romo, a professor of urban studies and planning at the University of California San Diego who is tracking environmental impacts of the construction on both sides of the border.

While there has been some seeding and other erosion-control measures at the top of the canyon, the sides of the berm have yet to be replanted with vegetation that can slow runoff.

The fence project, which the fill-in is part of, is not due to be completed until May.

Romo, who spent yesterday afternoon checking the site and a nearby sediment channel for erosion following the previous night's rainstorm, isn't optimistic.

“I saw what I had expected to see,” he said. “Everywhere you look at the berm, there is erosion going on.”

Romo said future rainfall could create enough runoff to reach the estuary unless steps are taken to halt erosion.

On Tuesday, before the rain began, Border Patrol special operations supervisor Jim Swanson stood at the edge of the canyon and pointed out nearby coastal sage scrub and other native plants that will eventually be replanted at the site.

“The people opposed to this don't like to hear this, but it's actually adding acreage of coastal vegetation,” he said.

A planned freeway-style retaining wall will also help, he said. By the time it is finished, the berm will be 150 feet tall and made from about 1.7 million cubic yards of earth.

Swanson, a 22-year veteran of the agency in San Diego, said Smuggler's Gulch has been a particularly dangerous place to patrol, especially in fog, with narrow dirt roads clinging to the sides of the canyon. An agent was killed in a rollover accident there in 2002.

Once the new fence is in, paved roads on either side will allow agents to zip across in seconds.
“This area needed something like this,” Swanson said.

The Smuggler's Gulch fence project is part of a federal plan dating to the mid-1990s that calls for 14 miles of contiguous secondary fencing running inland from the ocean.

The federal government is spending $60 million to complete approximately 3½ miles of secondary fencing that had yet to be built across the canyon, in Border Field State Park and in surrounding areas.

At a cost of $48.6 million, Smuggler's Gulch is by far the most expensive, and controversial, part of the project. Plans for the massive fill-in led to a February 2004 lawsuit against the federal government by environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and the San Diego Audubon Society.

That same month, the California Coastal Commission stalled construction after concluding it would cause environmental damage to the estuary, which had cost millions in state and federal tax dollars to restore.

The next year, however, Congress passed legislation that enabled the Department of Homeland Security to waive all laws standing in the way of building the fence. The environmental lawsuit was dismissed in December 2005.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20081127-9999-1m27gulch.html

Border wall moves ahead as DHS completes contracting

Scripps Howard Foundation Wire / AXcess News
November 18, 2008

(AXcess News) 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.axcessnews.com/index.php/articles/show/id/17083

Landowners hope juries will decide compensation

Associated Press / Brownsville Herald
November 12, 2008

(AP) - A federal judge will soon decide whether private landowners along the Rio Grande will have juries of their peers or a court-appointed panel of land experts decide how much the federal government owes them for land it takes to build the border fence.

The first trials are scheduled to begin in March, but U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen's decision - expected in coming weeks could mean the difference in thousands of dollars to people who have to turn over their property to the federal government for the fence.

Advocates for the property owners say that jury trials would be their first chance to make their case in a process that has left them virtually powerless.

Of the 670 miles of fencing the Department of Homeland Security plans to build along the U.S.-Mexico border, the staunchest opposition arose in the Rio Grande Valley where rich agricultural land, in many cases passed down over 200 years, runs to the banks of the Rio Grande.

The Justice Department expects to have about 270 condemnation lawsuits against Valley landowners. Most have settled, but federal lawyers expect that about 80 holdouts could carry their cases all the way to trial.

The government opposes jury trials, warning Hanen in a brief that such a plan could drag out the cases for more than a year, clogging an already busy court system. Construction of the fence will continue on schedule, as these lawsuits only determine how much the landowner will be reimbursed.

In some cases, visits to the condemned land are necessary and the government argues this could be more efficiently done by a three-member commission. It could also be hard to find enough open-minded jurors in a region with such widespread disapproval of the border fence, the brief said. A commission of experts however, would accelerate the process and be more likely to offer consistent payments to landowners, government lawyers said.

"In the absence of a commission, each jury verdict may be vastly different from another; landowners have every incentive to hold out for trial, proffer inflated values, and hope for the best," Assistant U.S. Attorney Paxton Warner wrote.
Private attorneys have a different view.

Court-appointed land commissioners typically have real estate backgrounds. Eddie Vassallo, a Dallas lawyer who has spent nearly 40 years handling condemnation cases, said they come to a case with preconceived opinions about land value, where a jury makes an independent decision.

"There's an inbuilt prejudice to this," said Eddie Vassallo, a Dallas-based attorney who has been handling condemnation cases for 39 years, noting that the government has the upper hand in deciding it needs a citizen's land and when it needs it.

Michael Rosen, a Tampa, Fla. eminent domain attorney, has worked both sides of condemnation cases.

"The federal system is very unfriendly (for landowners)," Rosen said. "If you go before a commission and they're hearing a thousand cases, the commissioners are less likely to listen to the property owner that has the case further down the line."

Rosen and Vassallo both said land commissions generally award less money than juries. The government prefers this, since taxpayers will be footing the bill.

Kimberli Loessin, a Houston attorney representing several Valley landowners, said Hanen shouldn't be worried about the case dragging on.

"We believe the reality is that not every lawsuit filed will result in a trial and many cases can and will be tried together," Loessin said by e-mail. "These cases can be efficiently tried before juries." Vassallo said every one or two cases that go to trial lead to dozens more being settled.

Loessin said the government has already streamlined a process that was heavily stacked in its favor to start. In April, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff waived a host of environmental laws that outlined a rigorous study and approval process for the border fence.

Hanen has been sympathetic to landowners. While he has consistently ruled in the government's favor on border fence cases, his approach has been far more deliberate than the government would have liked. He gave landowners an opportunity to appear in court and voice their concerns even when the law did not require it.

"This is the only time in a federal (eminent domain) case where the landowner has any say-so in what happens to them," Vassallo said.

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/compensation_91715___article.html/decide_hope.html

U.S. Customs and Border Protection delays building sections of fence

San Antonio Express-News
November 8, 2008

BROWNSVILLE — U.S. Customs and Border Protection is putting off construction of 14 miles of border fence in what Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said Friday is an indication parts of the fence in Texas may not stand under the next administration.

But CBP spokeswoman Angela de Rocha said the decision was made because of engineering difficulties presented by the Rio Grande flood plain and has nothing to do with politics. She said the areas are documented as high-traffic spots for drugs and unauthorized immigration and that the need for a fence wouldn't change.

“There is a law-enforcement need for fence there,” de Rocha said. “Those segments have been delayed, but we still intend to install tactical infrastructure there.”

She said other means of heightened security, such as increased Border Patrol and technology, would be used until the engineering problems have been resolved.

Cuellar, who sits on a subcommittee on the House of Representatives' Committee of Homeland Security, said he was told the decision to defer segments in Starr and Hidalgo counties was made weeks ago, but not shared until Friday.

“They have decided to defer this to the end of the year and let the new administration deal with the issue, is the way I read it,” Cuellar said. “For us, having (President-elect Barack) Obama in, the new homeland security secretary in — we welcome the opportunity to sit down with them and say there's other ways we can provide security.”

The three segments include portions in Rio Grande City, Roma and Los Ebanos totaling 14.36 miles.

While CBP is committed to completing 370 miles of pedestrian fencing by the end of the calendar year, construction in Texas has lagged under fierce opposition.

Government lawyers have been forced to take some private landowners to court in eminent-domain lawsuits and CBP has made high-profile concessions with Hidalgo County and the University of Texas-Brownsville.

To date, CBP has completed about 216 miles of pedestrian fence along the Southwest border.
De Rocha said contracts have been let for all but 20 miles of planned fencing.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/state/34128119.html

Border fence threatens supporter's S. Texas home

Associated Press / Houston Chronicle
October 31, 2008
by Christopher Sherman

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Dorothy Irwin is one of the Border Patrol's staunchest local supporters and was a fan of the proposed border fence — until she found out it would run right through her house.

It has been an awkward situation for Irwin as she tries simultaneously to protect the 19th-century plantation that her grandparents moved into in 1924.

The case of the Old Nye Plantation has been discussed at levels as high as Washignton, D.C., among U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, but is now back in the hands of U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville.

Two weeks ago, Hanen gave the government and Irwin more time to negotiate an agreement. They are scheduled to be back in court Friday.

"This is the first situation we've had where someone said, 'Hey, this fence is coming through my house,'" Hanen said.

In the past two weeks, an assistant U.S. attorney toured the 600-acre farm with officials from Homeland Security and the Army Corps of Engineers and discussed the case in Irwin's home. Two days ago there was still no deal.

Irwin's simple question: "Why is this being done the way it's being done?"

The fenceline would run just behind Irwin's red brick, two-story house. But the Border Patrol also plans to build rights-of-way for their patrol vehicles, which would go right where her house stands now.

The plantation's main buildings sit at the foot of the levee on the north side of the Rio Grande. The plantation, approached along a long palm-lined drive, sits squarely between properties owned by The Nature Conservancy and the Audubon Society.

The government's plan to build the border fence along the north edge of the levee would leave more than 400 acres of the plantation behind the fence.

That is what really gets Irwin. As much as she supports the idea of securing the border, she said the U.S. landowners are the ones being punished by building the fence as much as two miles from the winding Rio Grande in some places.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is overseeing the project, said it has to be built on the north side of the levee to avoid diverting the flow of floodwaters and running afoul of international treaties with Mexico. It is a reason the agency has stuck to in many of the contested land cases, but has worked out other arrangements in places such as Los Ebanos, where the lack of a levee forced the government to propose a removable fence to be placed in the floodplain.

To Irwin, who has seen her government put a man on the moon, the reasoning is weak. A permeable fence, she said, built along the river should be considered.

As of October 22, the government had built 216 miles of pedestrian fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border and 154 miles of vehicle barriers.

But of the 110 miles of fence planned for Texas, only 3.3 miles are complete, according to Customs and Border Protection.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6087980.html#

Feds deliver domain notices

Brownsville Herald
October 30, 2008

by Kevin Sieff

Moving forward with its plans to construct a border fence in the Rio Grande Valley, the federal government has filed land condemnation lawsuits involving nine Cameron County properties whose owners are unknown, deceased or unresponsive.

In South Texas, where land deeds are often convoluted or outdated, it's a vital formality before construction on the barrier can begin.

"We're moving forward with our real estate proceedings," said Angela de Rocha, spokeswoman for the U.S Department of Homeland Security.

In cases of unknown ownership, the government must run an advertisement in local newspapers, informing the public of pending lawsuits. The two-page advertisement ran in Thursday's Brownsville Herald, detailing several swaths of property throughout the county.

As of Sept. 10, 97 landowners in the Valley had refused to sell their property to the federal government, according to a Government Accountability Office report. DHS officials say they've continued resolving cases, but they've encountered a number of convoluted deeds.

Judge Andrew Hanen will hear seven land condemnation lawsuits this morning - a fraction of the remaining cases.

After receiving its appropriation request from Congress, the DHS is continuing with its plans to complete the fence in the coming months. But with so many pending condemnation lawsuits - and no sign of construction in Cameron County - the government's initial Dec. 31 deadline appears increasingly unrealistic.

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/government_91307___article.html/lawsuits_cases.html

Contractors Hired To Build Border Fence

KVEO Channel 23
October 1, 2008

The contractors are hired to build four sections of the controversial border fence throughout Cameron County.Like it or not, Homeland Security says the fence is going up.

Proof of that is in the form of these multi-million dollar construction contracts.

Precinct 2 Cameron County Commissioner, John Wood strongly opposes the fence, and says, these new contracts are a shame.

Two contractors, Keiwit Construction and Jaco Construction have been hired.

Wood says these contractors are being paid about 37 million dollars to bulid the fence in Cameron County on a little more than 7 miles of land. Wood believes this is a waste of money, and says the fence will be built in four separate sections, affecting many land owners.

"It's just not fair, for the landowners, they are being taken advantage of, I don't think they've been treated fairly or negotiated with, " Wood says.

Recently, Commissioner Wood even visited other parts of the state to see what the border fence already looks like.

"I was in El Paso last week, i saw some fencing being done there, a little bit of a difference there, they're using a hurricane like fence, a little bit of mesh wire."

The fence here, Wood says, will probably be an 18 foot high, bollard fence, in which he believes is highly un-wanted. "The federal government's spending money like this, and I think it's useless. '
A date as to when the building will begin has still not been set.

http://www.kveo.com/home/ticker/29983679.html

Rodríguez hopes county commissioners will appeal border fence lawsuit ruling

Rio Grande Guardian
September 13, 2008

EL PASO, September 13 - El Paso County Attorney José Rodríguez hopes an appeal is lodged after a judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit that sought to stop construction of the border fence.

“The law firm Mayer Brown LLP of Washington, D.C., who is handling the litigation, is already working on the appeal, which the County Attorney will encourage El Paso Commissioner’s Court to join,” Rodríguez’s office said, in a statement issued late Friday.

Rodríguez, a leading member of the Texas Border Coalition, said plaintiffs have 90 days to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.

The lawsuit was filed on June 23, 2008, by El Paso County, the City of El Paso, the El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1, the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Native American Indian tribe, and Mark Clark, owner of Brownsville’s Galeria 409.

Later, three South Texas environmental conservation groups, Frontera Audubon Society, Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, Friends of Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, joined the lawsuit.

The lawsuit challenged Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's statutory authority to issue waivers of more than three dozen federal laws, as well as related state, local and tribal laws, to expedite the construction of a border fence.

But, in a blow to border wall opponents, U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo granted the Department of Homeland Security’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit based on the merits of the case.

In his ruling, Montalvo held that the waivers used by Chertoff to expedite the construction of the border fence were constitutional because “…Congress constitutionally delegated its authority in the Waiver Legislation.”

Montalvo further ruled that the Waiver legislation did not violate the 10th amendment because the waivers were issued with the intent to “preempt state and local laws, which would interfere with Congress’s objective to expeditiously construct the border fence.”

Earlier this month, Montalvo denied a request for a request for a preliminary injunction against the construction of the border fence in El Paso County. Rodríguez was unavailable for comment on Thursday’s ruling by Montalvo.

When the request for a preliminary injunction was denied, Rodríguez said he disappointed. “This lawsuit involves an unprecedented delegation of authority by the Congress to the executive branch, because it allows DHS Secretary Chertoff to disregard long-standing federal laws that provide protection and benefits to the public and the environment,” Rodríguez said at the time.

In April, Chertoff announced that DHS was sidestepping 36 federal laws and regulations, including the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act, in an effort to complete 670 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border wall by year’s end.

Chertoff said he had the right to do so under the terms of the REAL ID Act of 2005. Previously, Chertoff had used his waiver authority for two portions of border fence in Arizona and one portion in San Diego.

Jim Chapman, board president of the Frontera Audubon Society, said his group joined the lawsuit to in order to ask the court to declare section 102 of the Real ID Act unconstitutional and to prevent DHS from building walls, roads, or other infrastructure on the border that do not fully comply with all of the nation’s environmental laws.

“To instantly dissolve 96 years of environmental laws and protection with a mere wave of the hand is nothing short of monstrous,” Chapman said. “If laws can be so easily swept aside on the border, the same precedent could be applied anywhere, from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Yellowstone National Park. If our nation’s laws are optional, they aren’t really laws.”

Wayne Bartholomew, executive director of Frontera Audubon, said that the fate of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge system is of particular concern to environmentalists.

“Further habitat losses in the Valley, which serves as a vital stop over and feeding grounds for hundreds of species of migrating coastal shorebirds, inland waterfowl, and passerines, and nesting habitat for approximately 150 more species, will be catastrophic,” Bartholomew said.

Consisting of individual tracts of native habitat linked by the Rio Grande, the LRGVNWF creates a wildlife corridor, providing endangered species such as the ocelot and jaguarundi sufficient territory to find food, water, and mates. Migratory birds also rely on it to rest and refuel on their annual journeys, as well as for nesting.

Maps released by DHS show the border wall slicing through many refuge tracts, and cutting off others from the river. The wall will fragment habitat, block migratory pathways, deny animals’ access to fresh water, and isolate breeding populations of endangered ocelot and jagurandi.

“It's taken 30 years, $80 million, and back-breaking effort to create an 80,000 acre wildlife corridor along the last 250 miles of the Rio Grande. To put a fence or wall through that is insanity,” said Keith Hackland, president of the Friends of the Wildlife Corridor.

Shane Wilson, president of the Friends of Laguna Atascosa, agreed.

“Currently, there are only 80 to 100 wild ocelots remaining in the continental U.S., and they cannot hope to survive without the wildlife corridor and the protection of the Endangered Species Act,” Wilson said. “The border wall, as proposed, will ensure that future generations will never witness the spectacular beauty of seeing an ocelot in the wild.”

Earlier this week, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Ralph Basham told Congress that his agency needs an extra $400 million in order to build the 370 miles of border fencing it has committed to. About 70 miles of fencing is slated for the Texas-Mexico border.

Basham blamed the higher cost of fuel and steel and a shortage of labor. He said he could not guarantee that the fencing would be constructed by the end of President Bush’s term in office.

In a statement, Texas Border Coalition Chairman Chad Foster urged Congress to reject any request by the Bush Administration for an additional $400 million. He called the $50 billion border fence project “wasteful.”

http://www.riograndeguardian.com/rggnews_story.asp?story_no=19

Border Fence Is Not Likely to Be Done by Year’s End

New York Times
September 10, 2008

The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that cost overruns, legal obstacles and other problems were imperiling its goal of completing the 670 miles of fencing and technological improvements on the Southwest border that President Bush has promoted as vital to securing it.
Rising costs for construction and materials and delays in acquiring land from owners could foil the effort to build the fence by the end of the year, said officials, who are now seeking more money for the project.

The officials, speaking at a Congressional hearing and in interviews, brought to light the latest in a series of problems confronting the effort to more closely monitor the border and stop people from crossing it.

The department has 341 miles of new fencing in place along the 2,000-mile border. But completing the project, they said, hinges on redirecting $400 million in department funds, much of which requires Congressional approval, from other purposes. Even then, the department may have only agreed on contracts or partly built the rest of the fence by the end of the year.

Since 2005, Congress has appropriated $2.7 billion for the Secure Border Initiative, a combination of physical barriers and a so-called virtual fence, a highly promoted system of cameras and sensors.

The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said in a report Wednesday that the Homeland Security Department had no projections for the total cost of building or maintaining the fencing.

The report said the average cost had risen this year to $7.5 million per mile for pedestrian barriers, typically large steel and mesh plates, and $2.8 million per mile for vehicle fencing, usually an array of short thick poles. February’s estimates were $4 million for pedestrian fencing and $2 million for vehicles.

W. Ralph Basham, the commissioner of the department’s Customs and Border Protection division, told lawmakers: “We are going to be out of business unless we get some relief. The operation will stop.”

At a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee, officials also noted delays that have plagued the virtual fence, being developed with the Boeing Corporation. That project had already been bogged down by technical problems, but the accountability office report said that environmental reviews the department had not anticipated will now postpone the project.

The report said department lawyers had concluded that waivers used to bypass environmental laws to build the physical fence did not apply to the virtual one, meaning it will not be operational until early next year and only at limited parts of the border in Arizona. Jayson Ahern, the deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said in an interview, however, that the technical problems and a shift of money to the physical fence accounted for the recent delays.

Members of Congress questioned the planning and management of border security efforts.

Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, the committee chairman, took aim at the delays of the virtual fence.

“The partnership between D.H.S. and Boeing has produced more missed deadlines and excuses than results,” he said.

Mr. Basham acknowledged that the projects had encountered complications. The escalating price of steel, among other costs, has driven up the price of the physical fence, he said.

The delays in the virtual fence, he said, are in keeping with recommendations from the committee and the G.A.O. not to put pieces of the project in place until they have been tested.

“If we move too fast and don’t test enough we are criticized,” Mr. Basham said. “Yet when we slow down to test we are criticized for not meeting our own goals and timelines.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/us/11fence.html?ref=us