The Texas Observer

While much of the United States is focused on the Democratic and Republican national conventions, border residents are still trying to draw attention to the building of the border wall. Construction of the wall has already begun in Hidalgo County. See photos of the construction here.

Community members in El Paso have largely been unified in their opposition to the border wall. In May, El Paso County Commissioners passed a resolution against the wall’s construction. And in June, the city and county of El Paso filed a lawsuit against Homeland Security.

To publicize their opposition to building the wall in El Paso, protesters will walk for five days covering 54 miles from El Paso to Ft. Hancock.

The march will run August 27-31. It will start in Sunland Park and end in Ft. Hancock. At each stop, organizers plan to hold community meetings and cultural events.

Here is a breakdown of the march route

August 27(Wed) Kick off cultural event in Fort Hancock.
August 28 (Thu) From Fort Hancock, walk to Alamo Alto.
August 29 (Fri) From Alamo Alto, walk to Tornillo, hold community event. End in Fabens.
August 30 (Sat) From Fabens, walk to San Elizario, hold community event. End in Ysleta del Sur with the Tiguas community.
August 31(Sun) Morning ceremony in San Ysleta del Sur. Then to El Paso. After arriving in El Paso, a bi-national event will be held in Anapra, Chihuahua and Sundland Park, NM

For more information on the march, contact Javier Perez at (915) 474-4930.

 Daniel Garza, 74, didn’t have the resources to take Homeland Security to court over construction of the border wall (unlike the University of Brownsville). No sooner had Hurricane Dolly blown through, then the heavy machinery began cutting into the earthen levee behind his home last Friday.

This is part of the 22-mile levee/fence project that Hidalgo County Judge JD Salinas was able to negotiate with Homeland Security. Currently 13-foot steel poles are being driven into the earthen levee and will be reinforced with concrete.

The levee sits about 50 feet behind Garza’s home. The Observer wrote about Garza’a predicament in our story “Holes in the Wall” published in February. Initially, his home and his son’s home were slated for destruction to make way the border fence. Garza was even more upset to find that the fence stopped at the edge of his property line but didn’t cross into land owned by Dallas billionaire Ray L. Hunt.

Judge Salinas negotiated a deal that would save Garza’s home…for now. But Garza isn’t confident that his property is safe, says his niece Gloria Garza. And who could blame him?
“He is extremely depressed,” she says. “Right now they are not taking his land for an easement, but then you can never be sure about the future.”

Garza said they are also extremely concerned about digging up the levee during the height of hurricane season. ‘We just had one hurricane come through and they didn’t even wait for the soil to dry out,” she says.

When I visited his home in February, Mr. Garza told me sadly “Money talks, and we don’t have it.”

Today, Federal Judge Andrew Hanen did what other federal judges have failed to do — force Homeland Security to sit down and negotiate with border residents.

Homeland Security says it has made numerous efforts at community outreach and “public meetings” along the border. Border residents say, however, that the meetings consisted of nothing more than talking heads from Washington D.C., and a stenographer poised to write down community concerns.

From day one it was clear that the border wall was a done deal. Border residents say they had two choices: sign the condemnation paper on their own land or go to court.

The University of Texas at Brownsville chose the latter. And today, Dr. Juliet Garcia, president of the university, finally struck a deal with the feds that prevents the condemnation of university land but still provides border security.

It required only a lawsuit and three trips to federal court to force Homeland Security to play ball. For several months, Garcia had been trying to negotiate an alternative to an 18-foot steel wall being built through the middle of her campus.

Back in January, the federal government filed a condemnation lawsuit against the university. And in June, the university took DHS back to court for violating an agreement to study alternatives to a fence.

Today, Judge Hanen approved an agreement between the two parties that will end federal condemnation proceedings.

As part of the agreement, the university will raise its fencing around the perimeter of the campus to 10 feet and upgrade it with high-tech surveillance devices. In addition, the university and Homeland Security will establish a center to study border issues including security.

After the University’s case was heard, Hanen took up several lawsuits filed by border landowners, including Dr. Eloisa Tamez, 72. Tamez has been an especially effective advocate for landowner rights. After the hearing, she was ecstatic that a trial has been set for next March.

Landowners say they have been intimidated into signing condemnation papers by the federal government. Tamez also said that the compensation offered by Homeland Security for their land was paltry, and the government officials won’t explain how they came up with the monetary figures.

“They also don’t want to compensate us for the land on the south side of the wall which we won’t have access to anymore,” Tamez says.

Tamez’ property was granted to her ancestors in the 18th century by the King of Spain.

“Judge Hanen has asked the government to explain its actions and to finally consult with the people,” she says. “Today I really feel like landowners concerns were finally heard.”

Bill Guerra Addington already fought to keep a nuclear waste dump out of his backyard in Sierra Blanca; now he’s fighting the Department of Homeland Security to keep a small footbridge that spans the Rio Grande on his alfalfa farm.

“I fought the Sierra Blanca nuclear dump and now I’m fighting Homeland Security — it’s just one thing after another,” says Addington.

To visit the Big Bend area is to be floored by the beauty and vastness of the Chihuahuan Desert region. The people who live there value their independence, but they also value their neighbors, whether those neighbors be Mexican or U.S. citizens.

In such a vast and remote area, your neighbor can mean the difference between life and death. Some small communities along the Rio Grande have been there since the 17th century. And for several hundred years, families have crossed back and forth to visit relatives and health clinics, to work and to buy food.

The footbridge that connects Addington’s farm with Mexico is used by Mexican farm workers and U.S. residents who want to visit Mexico. Without the bridge, either group would have to drive 140 miles round-trip to cross at a federal port of entry. And if Homeland Security has its way, that’s exactly what will happen.

Henry Miller, a property owner in Candelaria, about 100 miles east of Addington’s farm, said his town had its bridge seized and dismantled by Homeland Security last month. Miller and five high school buddies from Midland (class of ‘63) bought a majority of the town several years ago.

“It’s just a great place to get away, to go hunting and shoot dove and quail,” he says.

The metal suspension bridge was built in the 1950s to link the desert towns of Candelaria (pop. 50) in Texas and San Antonio del Bravo (pop. 150) in Mexico.

“The bridge kept the communities going. People would cross over on Friday to buy food, visit with friends then go back on Sunday,” Miller says.

See local historian Glenn Justice’s Web site for pictures and history of the Candelaria bridge. Justice describes a recent incident in which a man on the Texas side survived a heart attack because he was able to get across the bridge to the doctor in San Antonio del Bravo.

Miller says that drug and immigrant smuggling were never an issue with the small bridge. Besides there’s a Border Patrol office at the top of the hill overlooking the span, he says.

“We used to have about 70 kids attending school in that building, but it was taken over by the Border Patrol a few years ago,” Miller says.

Before the bridge was destroyed by the Border Patrol, Miller and his buddies received an ominous letter from the Department of Homeland Security directing them to dismantle it. “They said if we didn’t do it, they would fine us $3,000 for every person who crossed the bridge,” he says.

Miller says he and his partners declined to destroy the link between the two communities.

“What would the communities think of us, if we did such a thing?,” Miller asks. “It’s a humanitarian issue when you have to travel eight hours round trip to get from Candelaria to San Antonio del Bravo if you do it the way Border Patrol wants it.”

So Miller and the other five owners were summoned to Austin for a meeting with Homeland Security, “We had been told we’d be meeting with several head honchos,” he says. In the end, only Dan Harris, assistant patrol agent for the Marfa sector, showed up.

“At that moment Defense Secretary Robert Gates was touring West Texas and the Marfa sector,” Miller says. “So [the other officials] didn’t come because of his visit.”

Bill Brooks, public information officer for the Border Patrol’s Marfa sector, says there are six bridges that require removal in the 510-mile border sector.

“This law has been on the books for a long time,” Brooks says. “We’re human beings who are concerned for our neighbors, but these are not federal ports of entry.”

Brooks says Border Patrol is giving landowners six weeks to remove the bridges. He explains that the bridges used to be allowed as Class B ports of entry, but not since 9-11.

The Candelaria bridge now sits in pieces at Border Patrol headquarters in Marfa. “We’re just waiting to see what the landowners want to do with it,” Brooks says.

Miller says the crackdown is another blow for small Big Bend communities barely carving out a living. He says he’s considering hauling the broken bridge back to town as a protest against the militarization of the border.

“It’s devastating for the locals and I am afraid these communities will dry up,” he says. “And guess who will take over the homes and ranches? The drug dealers, because there won’t be anyone around anymore to keep them out or inform on them.”