To Fend Off Border Fence, Mayors Deny Access To City Property

EL PASO, TX. – El Paso Mayor John Cook says an Associated Press report about him is flat wrong!

State border officials were in El Paso Wednesday discussing how to spend more than$100 million dollars allocated by the legislature. Wednesday at noonABC-7 toldviewers about theAP story which says that Cook joined with some other Texas border mayors in denying access to Department of Homeland Security doing work on the new border fence.

According to the report, some border mayors have refused to letDHS crews onto city property. Cook tellsABC-7 the city doesn’t own any such property and therefore can’t deny access. He toldABC-7, in fact, that he supports border fencing in El Paso as a means to funnel people into the ports of entry — rather than allowing them to cross illegally.

BROWNSVILLE, TX. – Mayors along the Texas-Mexico border have begun a quiet protest of the federal government’s plans to build a fence along the border: Some are refusing access to their land.

Mayors in Brownsville, Del Rio and El Paso have denied or limited access to some parts of city property to Department of Homeland Security workers assigned to begin surveys or other preliminary work on the fence Congress has authorized to keep out illegal immigrants. Eagle Pass has denied a request from federal officials to build a portion of the wall within its city limits.

Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada said Tuesday that he refused two weeks ago to sign documents granting federal workers permission to begin work if it was to be on city property. Del Rio granted limited access, and El Paso allowed workers only on its outskirts, said Monica Weisberg Stewart of the Texas Border Coalition, a group that represents local officials.

“This is exercising our rights. This is our property,” Ahumada said. “We are not going to make it easy for them.” In Eagle Pass, Mayor Chad Foster said his city has refused the U.S. Border Patrol’s request to build 1 1/4 miles of fencing as part of a project that includes light towers and a new road for border patrols. But he added that although border communities are at odds with the government, they remain committed to finding solutions to these disagreements.

“All of us are in opposition to physical barriers but we want to work with [the Department of Homeland Security] so everybody walks away happy,” said Foster, who is also chairman of the Texas Border Coalition. Foster said some cities, like El Paso and Del Rio, have felt the need for some of the fence in their communities and others, like Eagle Pass and Brownsville, have not.

Brownsville, a city of about 170,000 people across the Rio Grande from Matamoros, Mexico, said it was also considering suing the federal government to prevent the fence’s construction on city property. City leaders met with attorneys Tuesday night about that possibility but decided to wait two weeks before making a decision. “If we have to, we’ll take it all the way up to the Supreme Court,” Ahumada said about a potential lawsuit. U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Brad Benson said the federal government hasn’t come up with a response but said it expected some land owners to refuse.

“We will work with everybody. We plan to accommodate any credible concerns with regard to the environment,” Benson said. “Our mission at the end of the day is to secure the border.” David Crump, a law professor at the University of Houston Law Center, said land owners can keep anybody out of their property for any reason, for now.”But it’s subject to being breached by legislation, and either the Texas Legislature or Congress can give power to an agency to do it,” said Crump, who specializes in real property law.

Texas officials, including Republican Gov. Rick Perry, also oppose the fence. Maps released last month by the federal government show that nearly 23 miles of fence would be built in and around Brownsville, including on some city property. Ahumada pointed from his office to land three blocks away as potential fenced-in areas. The maps, part of two notices of intent to file an environmental impact study, detailed the proposed locations of about 70 miles of border fencing in South Texas, stretching from Rio Grande City southeast to Fort Brown, next to Brownsville.

Maps of fencing being proposed for other parts of the state have not yet been released. Congress has authorized $1.2 billion for about 700 miles of fencing along the border. This would include about 330 miles of so-called virtual fence — a network of cameras, high-tech sensors, radar and other technology. The remaining 370 miles, primarily in more urban areas, are expected to have an actual, two-layer fence. Homeland Security has said it is committed to erecting 370 miles of fencing by the end of 2008.