Don’t Fence Us In!
November 18th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Details emerged last week about a draft report of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the Rio Grande Valley border wall plan. First written about by Steve Taylor and over at the Rio Grande Guardian, the draft detailing the 70-mile border wall describes the possibility of two layers of fencing, 130 feet apart — incorporating 21 sections — from Rio Grande City to Brownsville.
The EIS for the Valley can be found here. The site includes a form for public comment. Click here for a post by Forrest Wilder on the liberties the feds want to take in their rush to build a wall (along with a map that shows where it may go in Texas).
The EIS suggests three alternatives — the first option is doing nothing; the other two would build systems of fencing that follow similar routes along the International Boundary and Water Commission levee system near the river. The report warns:
Under both route alternatives, the tactical infrastructure within several of the 21 sections would also encroach on multiple privately-owned land parcels. Some proposed fence sections could also encroach upon portions of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge and Texas State Parks in the Valley.
The, ahem, hurdles faced by the fence are multiple. In addition to the possibility of legal entanglements from eminent domain proceedings, the Department of Homeland Security must also leap over environmental laws, and if it wants to use the levees, it probably needs Mexico’s assent as well. Then, of course, there is the widespread opposition from residents and elected officials from the Rio Grande Valley.
Is this the way real Texans — sons and daughters of the land of Tex-Mex — truly see themselves and their future?
