The Texas Observer

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
- Robert Frost, “Mending Wall”

Artists taking offense to the proposed 70-mile border wall in South Texas have come together in an exhibit appropriately titled “Art Against the Wall.” Rachel Brown, the exhibit organizer and arts instructor from South Texas College, says the project stemmed from an urge to speak out before it’s too late.

“I firmly believe artists are usually the first people to suffer when you have any kind of political regime that’s trying to oppress people,” she said, “because we are the ones trying to speak freely and free speech is usually one of the first things to go.”

Brown shared some of the pieces from the exhibit, currently at UT-Brownsville, with the Observer.

-”Mariposas” by Alma Casso (McAllen)

-”International Friendship” by Monica Ramirez (McAllen)

-”Build Bridges Not Walls” by Chris Van Dyck (McAllen)

-”Walls Kill Migrants” by Guadalupe Victoria (Monterrey, Mexico)

If built, the border wall itself - like the Berlin Wall and the Israeli security fence that Palestinians call an “apartheid wall” - will undoubtedly become a canvas for expression. Even the humorless Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr has urged Iraqis to paint “magnificent tableaux” on concrete barriers the U.S. has erected in Baghdad to protest the occupation. Brown and the other artists hope that day will never come.

Michael Chertoff has a heckuva job: With a stroke of his pen last month the Homeland Security chief suspended nineteen laws in Arizona that stood in the way of a two-mile section of border fence slated for the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.

He’s threatening to do South Texas the same way, unless environmentalists win a recently filed lawsuit.

Chertoff is using a tool granted to him by Congress in 2005 as part of the Real ID Act. In Section 102 of that act, Congress offered Homeland Security the power to waive laws conflicting with border militarization security. Congress also stripped the courts of judicial review except for Constitutional claims.

Chertoff decided to use the law in Arizona after a federal judge blocked further construction on the fence. In October, the judge agreed with environmentalists that the government had failed to address environmental concerns involved in building a massive fence through a wildlife refuge. The judge issued an order halting construction. Two weeks later, Chertoff invoked Section 102. Construction immediately resumed. (Question: if Chertoff gets pulled over for, say, speeding, can he skip out of the ticket by waiving traffic laws?)

On November 1, the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife amended their lawsuit against the government to argue that Section 102 “violates the U.S. Constitution’s fundamental Separation of Powers principles by impermissibly delegating legislative authority to a politically-appointed Executive Branch official.” Read the amended complaint here.

It should make for an interesting fight, and it’s relevant for us Texans because Homeland Security is turning its attention from other parts of the border to the 70 miles of wall it has slated for the Rio Grande Valley. As an Observer story in September detailed residents on both sides of the border as well as environmentalists and birders are enraged over the fence.

The latest map released by the government shows segments of the wall slicing through critical habitat in Texas. The Sabal Palm Audubon Center in Brownsville will be completely walled off, leaving this rare, species-rich palm grove in a sort-of no-man’s-land. Many Texans probably do not know that the Lower Valley is the most biologically diverse region in the nation. Yet it has a global reputation. I’ve met people from as far away as South Africa who have never set foot in Texas but know about the Valley because of its fame as a birding and wildlife paradise.

Chertoff’s response to all this? “I have to say to myself, ‘Yes, I don’t want to disturb the habitat of a lizard, but am I prepared to pay human lives to do that?’,” he told the AP.

The story behind the story of James Dannenbaum, a new UT regent, hasn’t gotten much play outside the Valley, where Dannenbaum has received quite a bit of notoriety. In the interest of shedding some light on the case, here’s our take:

In October, Gov. Rick Perry appointed three new regents to the University of Texas System Board of Regents. The prestigious post usually goes to loyal party members who have donated generously to the governor. One of the new regents is James Dannenbaum, president of Houston-based Dannenbaum Engineering, who has stuffed Perry’s campaign purse with $247,500 since 2000. That’s business as usual. What’s new is that Dannenbaum’s company is embroiled in a border scandal that involves a $21 million bridge that doesn’t exist, Mexican shell companies, and pending legal troubles.

The story begins in 1991 when South Texas voters approved $21 million in bonds for the construction of an international bridge to connect the Port of Brownsville to Matamoras, Mexico. The Brownsville Navigation District tapped Dannenbaum Engineering to manage and engineer the job. Although the firm received $15.4 million, the bridge was never built. Presently, $9.2 million of the $15.4 million simply can’t be accounted for, according to the 2005 findings of a special investigator appointed by the navigation district. The investigator traced the sum to three Mexican shell companies with ties to Dannenbaum principal Louis H. Jones. The only products from the 17 subcontractors hired by Dannenbaum were 49 black binders with a few sheets inside.

In February, the navigation district and Dannenbaum reached a settlement in which the district agreed to surrender its ability to collect on the missing funds. In exchange, Dannenbaum agreed to perform the equivalent of $2.9 million in engineering work on the U.S. portion of the bridge. The company has the right to recover that sum from whatever Mexican company is eventually selected for the Mexican half of the bridge. Navigation district commissioner and attorney Peter Zavaletta voted against the settlement, calling it “indefensible” at the time. “I cannot overstate how upset people were about that settlement,” Zavaletta tells the Observer.

Now Zavaletta is suing Dannenbaum on behalf of nine taxpayers, of which he is one. “My case is a very specific challenge asking the court to rule that the settlement must be declared null and void,” Zavaletta says. He argues that Dannenbaum has violated the settlement because, eight months later, they haven’t bothered to start on the project. Meanwhile, a special grand jury is looking into the possibility of criminal wrongdoings surrounding the bridge deal. As of yet, James Dannenbaum has not been directly implicated in the scandal, although he might at a minimum become a witness in the grand jury probe. “Regarding legal issues, the governor is not aware of any criminal investigation into Mr. Dannenbaum or his company,” says Krista Moody, a spokesperson for Perry. “The governor believes Dannenbaum will serve as a good steward of the people of Texas with integrity and character.”

As you can see it’s a long and twisted tale, typical of South Texas. Adding to the confusion is a credulous Paul Burka, over at Texas Monthly. Yesterday, he reported (the deleted post has been reproduced here) on the BurkaBlog that Zavaletta “has been indicted by a Cameron County jury on a charge of misapplication of fiduciary funds.” Pretty juicy stuff. Only problem is the indictment came down in 1988. And the charges were dismissed against Zavaletta. By his own admission, Burka based his post on a nearly 20-year-old Brownsville Herald article that was faxed to him from Dannenbaum Engineering. Burka did the right thing, retracting his post today and apologizing to Zavaletta. He blamed the mistake on an “extremely blurry” fax.

Thanks to the Rio Grande Guardian for letting us know that today the Department of Homeland Security advertised its plans in the Federal Register for almost 70 miles of fencing along the Texas Mexico border.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Office of Border Patrol (OBP) is preparing Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) and Environmental Assessments (EAs) to identify and assess the potential environmental impacts associated with proposed construction and operation of tactical infrastructure along the U.S./Mexico international border (the Proposed Actions). The tactical infrastructure includes primary fence and patrol roads.

Tactical infrastructure indeed. The EIS and EAs provide time for comment. But as Mary Jo McConahay explains in her recent Observer story Habitat for Inanity, the move toward the fence will likely end up in court.

Failed actor turned Minutemen mastermind and FOX News darling Chris Simcox wants you to know that he’s a friend of the immigrant. “We have great respect for the people coming across [the border],” he told an audience at UT-Austin last night as part of a nationwide college tour. Simcox was the invited guest of the Young Conservatives of Texas, the campus crusaders responsible for such stunts as “Capture an Illegal Alien Day” and the “Affirmative Action Bake Sale.” About 50 protesters taunted Simcox with charges of racism and vigilantism, a repeat of Simcox’s appearance at New York University last night.

Simcox, as chief negotiator for White America and founder of the armed Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, spoke of the immigrant women he has “consoled in [his] arms” and the children he and his posse have “saved” at the border. (That’s right, before he turns them over to the Border Patrol.)

With the help of some Republican image-makers, Simcox is trying to recast himself as a friend of the immigrant and a champion of the working class to boot. Call it Minutemen 2.0. The hardcore “deport ‘em all” message is still evident, but it’s now candy-coated with talk of rescue missions at the border and compassion for undocumented immigrants.

“We are a pro-immigrant organization,” he said of the Minutemen. “We want to see immigrants protected. I have seen too many people die in the desert.”

Yet Simcox supports the very policies that push people into the desert. As soon as he began talking about his vision for immigration policy, all suspicions that the Minutemen had transformed into some human rights organization evaporated. Simcox wants the border sealed by fences and military troops to prevent illegals from exploiting “the weak underbelly of America.” Cops and judges should be required to routinely suss out whether a person has a legal right to be in the country, and if not, turn them over to immigration authorities for deportation. If the government doesn’t crack down on illegal immigration soon, Simcox said, there will be a “breakdown in our society that will lead to anarchy.” And, finally, a .45 Springfield revolver is a good weapon to pack when patrolling for aliens.

Someone asked Simcox about the WMDs and terrorists pouring across the border. “There is a great deal of evidence of that,” he replied. His proof: last year 650 people were apprehended from countries that the U.S. government considers sponsors of terrorism. That’s some pretty thin gruel. An asylum-seeker from Iran, perhaps a political or religious dissident, caught by Border Patrol would count towards that number. Far from proof of terroristic infiltration, or WMDs for that matter.

About half the audience consisted of protesters who repeatedly interrupted Simcox’s presentation with chants and rants. “We have to confront racists, we have to confront proto-fascists organizations like the Minutemen every time they rear their ugly head,” said Matt Korn, a member of the International Socialist Organization, before the event. Two people were arrested - one for criminal trespass and one for interfering with a police officer. Three others were escorted out by the UTPD for interfering with Simcox’s speech.

If that sounds like a good time, why not spend a whole month vacationing with the Texas Minutemen down on the border? “The Texas Operations Team is making every effort to insure [sic] your enjoyment while you are here for our border watch,”advertises the Minutemen website for its April fandango. Yep, after your hard day busting illegals from a lawn chair, you can enjoy the pleasures of the Valley - fishing, birding, and sightseeing. Oh, and I hear Mexico is nice this time of year too.

Valley politics can be un poco loco, but this story is downright insane. The Willacy County prosecutor is trying to get himself arrested - again. Today Juan Angel Guerra, the county’s populist D.A., showed up in front of county jail in Raymondville with a pair of handcuffs demanding that the sheriff arrest him for violating the conditions of a court order issued yesterday. He was joined by his supporters - “the barrio people,” as Guerra called them.

Guerra spent Sunday night in jail after refusing to allow police into his office with a search warrant related to a special prosecutor’s allegations of official corruption. “It was great,” Guerra said of his night in jail with people he had prosecuted. “I slept like a baby. The inmates inside treated me with so much respect.” On Monday, Guerra was arraigned on three felony counts of theft by a public servant. Although a condition of his release was that he not leave the county, Guerra promptly headed to Mexico on Monday where he drank margaritas and listened to mariachis. Meanwhile, 300 to 400 cases Guerra is supposed to prosecute in front of state District Judge Migdalia Lopez are on hold.

So, what the hell is going on?

Read the rest of this entry »