In January, DHS officials started serving landowners with condemnation lawsuits to build an 18-foot steel wall in segments across the Texas border. The agency's goal is to build 130 miles of fencing in the state by the end of 2008.
While these landowners fight to keep their land, much of the national news coverage surrounding their struggle has reduced their experiences to 30-second sound bites. We traveled up and down the Texas border interviewing landowners, local officials and border residents to get the story from their point of view.
Border residents bridle when people in the northern United States refer to them as unpatriotic or as obstructionists because they speak out against the border wall. Brownsville resident Eloisa Tamez, 72, summed up the feelings that many Texas border residents have about the wall. “We serve our country, we pay our taxes. My father served in the military. I served 17 years in the U.S. Army Nurse Corp and I am proud of it,” she said. “But I think this border wall was a hasty decision, it was a political move, and no thought was given to those who would be hurt by it.”
