 "Photo: Caleb Miller, Daily Texan Staff")
Members of the Texas Border Coalition convened before the Mexican American Legislative Caucus at the Capitol Thursday to pressure lawmakers into reaching amicable solutions between the United States and Mexico to enforce border security and maintain historical and environmental landmarks along the border.
The coalition, created in 1998 to represent the border region’s opinions in Austin and Washington, D.C., is composed of mayors, state judges and business owners in border counties.
The coalition proposed three objectives to the Legislature: Consider the coalition and other locals’ input and proposals when debating solutions; form a working commission at the state level to look at proposals; and pass a state resolution against the border fence.
The coalition has proposed a host of alternative initiatives to the three-person panel, most notably the Brownsville Weir and Reservoir Project. The project would help capture excess water in the Rio Grande River that usually bypasses Brownsville en route to the Gulf of Mexico. If constructed, it would act as a natural barrier between Mexico and the United States. Other efforts include clearing the banks of the Rio Grande River that are filled with vegetation, which is often used as hiding areas for illegal immigrants.
Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, who chairs the organization, targeted Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff’s unwillingness to use every tool at his disposal to find a natural barrier alternative to a man-made wall, referring to an amended law Chertoff refuses to recognize.
“At that time, [Chertoff] said his hands were tied,” Foster said of a January 2007 meeting between the coalition and the secretary. “[It] was amended, and that amendment was signed by President George W. Bush on December 26, 2007 that gave [Chertoff] the flexibility to use natural barriers; but he continues to operate under the previous act, rather than the amended statute.”
The coalition also insisted the border wall is the worst attempt at a congressional solution to the nation’s immigration problems. Jose Rodriguez, an attorney for El Paso County and member of the coalition, called the fence a “political statement meant to give a false sense of border security.”
“The evidence is clear that the fence is a waste of taxpayer money and unneeded,” he said in his written testimony. “More than 30 tunnels have been discovered in California, Arizona and New Mexico under freshly constructed fencing.”
Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada said his city, already “one of the poorest in the nation,” is unable to handle the economic blow the border fence would cause. Ahumada said he will ask state and national officials to reimburse the city for economic and ecological damages caused by the construction of the fence.
“No fence is going to stop illegal immigration,” he said, citing a 28 percent increase in apprehensions of illegal immigrants after the fence was built in San Diego, Texas.
The University of Texas at Brownsville has been engaged in negotiations with the federal government since early this year to reach a consensus on the government’s request to survey the land and potentially cut through UT-Brownsville’s campus using the fence.
Shortly before a March court date, both parties “entered into an agreed order that allowed limited access to campus [for the government], but required investigations to study alternatives to a border fence and the impact of additional security measures,” according to a statement by UT-Brownsville President Juliet Garcia.
UT-Brownsville filed a suit in federal court in June due to the government’s unwillingness to abide by the mutual agreement. The university and Homeland Security reached an agreement in August that avoided the construction of a new physical barrier on the campus, but they agreed to pay for enhancements of an existing fence on the campus.
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