Posted on 05/17/2008 11:08:28 AM PDT by 3AngelaD
McALLEN -- Elected officials and business leaders along Texas' border with Mexico sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Friday, claiming DHS failed to follow federal land acquisition rules in preparing to build the border fence.
"This was the last resort - we could not get the necessary consultation," said Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster....
Foster is chairman of the Texas Border Coalition, a group of border mayors, county judges and local economic development officials that advocates on behalf of communities along the Texas-Mexico border on issues that affect the quality of life in the region. The coalition filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleging DHS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection failed to adequately consult with Texas landowners and negotiate in good faith to reach "reasonable" sale prices for their properties. The group is seeking an injunction to halt construction of the fence, along with class-action status to represent landowners along the Texas-Mexico border.
A Homeland Security spokeswoman...but did address the government's dealings with landowners.
"We've nearly bent over backward to work with landowners. Accusations to the contrary are either ill-informed or just plain wrong," Laura Keehner said, citing a series of public meetings convened in the region...Foster attributed that position to the group's attorney, Peter Schey, president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles....
Eminent domain is a power that is clearly granted to the government in the Constitution. What exactly is the problem here? The government should provide just compensation and get on with the building the wall.
Or failing that... grant these jerks' wish... build the wall so that these property owners would be on the side of the fence that faces Mexico.
HA! The mexicans would toss him out be the end of the first month.
Besides, Eagle Pass IS mexico on Saturdays. At the local Wal-Mart there is about one Texas license plate for every fifteen or twenty from mexico.
I remember seeing that at a Wal-Mart in El Paso, although it is nowhere near Eagle Pass. I wonder why so many Mexicans come to shop at Wal-Mart in the USA? Wouldn't the stuff they want be cheaper in Mexico?
And for the record, I have no problem with Mexicans coming to the USA legally to shop. If such legal commerce helps to stimulate the local economy, then have at it.
Mostly CYA, bull, there is not going to be any fence built in Texas, these clowns know that, jerkoff has already signed wavers eliminating all but 370 miles of fence.
Hello? Hello? Words have meaning....the “waivers” you referred to were to waive a bunch of environmental laws so they COULD build the fence. You use words, but don’t bother to find out what they mean, do you? They have already built nearly 400 miles of fence just this year and should have about 700 built before the year ends. Not nearly enough, but it is a start, and much better than nothing. I think in San Diego they just need one more little section to go and they will have most of it secured. BUILD THE DAMN FENCE.
Perhaps the solution is to build the fence 10 miles inland from the actual border and then cede everything in between to Mexico.
Only 12 Miles of Real Border Fence Done Despite Law and May Deadline By Penny Starr CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer May 01, 2008
(CNSNews.com) - Two years after President George W. Bush signed the Secure Fence Act into law, requiring 700 miles of double-layer fencing to be constructed along five stretches of the southern U.S. border by May 2008, only 90 miles of fencing have been built -- and just 12 miles of it is double-layered.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200805/NAT20080501b.html
After you read the link get back to me with some more hello’s,
Interestingly enough that is not the case. The “tax-free” or rather duty-free goods as a result of NAFTA really don’t exist (much) in mexico as it only applies to items manufactured in the US or Canada. Well guess where most of the stuff in Wal-Mart comes from? China, of course. So, the stuff is actually cheaper here that in Mexico because mexico taxes the crap out of it.
Here is a perfect example… When we were running a Border Watch operation east of El Paso back in `06 we were on the far end of the watch area which was about 50 miles east of El Paso and about 3-4 miles west of Ft. Hancock We noticed a pickup truck heading due south towards the border on a dirt road and he was pedal to the metal. So we radioed over to the guys on the levee road which runs parallel to the border and stays within about 100 yard of the river to intercept the truck and get a look.
Sure enough the truck hops the levee and then the last 100 yards and crosses into mexico across the nearly bone dry riverbed and disappears in a cloud of dust. The intercept radios back saying the guy drove right by them and asking if we want to report it. I ask them what was he hauling in the pickup?
Answer… washer and dryer, new in the box.
I have an idea, why don’t we audit every person opposing border security bank accounts. I am willing to wager at least a couple of them have been receiving kickbacks from drug cartels and coyotes.
Hello? Hello? Specifically, some of the “waivers” on which you are so unclear were issued so that the remaining segments of the San Diego fence CAN BE BUILT without having to deal with the Sierra Club. Duncan Hunter did not issue them, your great enemy Chertoff did. The San Diego fence is a serious effort. I have seen some of the fence they built in Arizona and it is pretty serious, too. The open borders crowd is very unhappy with what has been done so far, and are going to be even more unhappy by the end of this year when there are more than 700 miles of fence up and running. Have you been anywhere and looked to see what they have done so far? I have. If I were you I don’t think I would depend on CNS news for ALL my information.
To curb illegal immigration, the U.S. government plans to complete 370 miles of fencing and put 200 miles of vehicle barriers on the southwest border by the end of 2008.http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=d8s0mjg00&show_article=1
Should have added this was what jerkoff stated in testimony before congress 370 miles at the most much of which is really the three pieces of steel welded together, Like a toy version of a WWII tank trap. Just because a source states the truth and you don’t like it is no sign it is not the truth.
Uh, your article is six months old. I think there are more recent ones available that reflect the most recent targets.
An even better solution is to build two fences, a half-mile apart. And then heavily AP mine the intervening space.
Yes, the interesting thing is the vast majority of the fence is being built on federal land, either the boundary commission river levees in Texas or the land along the border that was declared federal property by Teddy Roosevelt. The people in Texas who demanded money for the Border Patrol just to walk on their land, in order to protect them from an invasion of rapacious foreigners, are greedy AND clueless.
Land mines have always been my first choice, but there are the squeamish among us.
I am sure you are right.
In certain parts of Texas I am sure you have go it right on the nose. Many elected officials there are going to have a comfy retirement. Gee, I wonder if they are the same ones who are opposing the fence? For instance, the mayor of Laredo is party to the lawsuit mentioned in this story, but there are no plans to build a fence at Laredo. There is, however, a health drug scene going on in Nuevo Lardo. Coinkydink? Or not?
So when you went to look at the fence that they have built, what did you think?
The government can steal people’s land and tear down their homes (with arbitrary compensation - anyone who argues otherwise has never dealt with zoning shenanigans) in order to hand it off to politically well-connected developers so they can build a mall, or a parking garage, or condos. That never elicits these sorts of complaints. More tax dollars! More political donations! Better positions (akin to a golden handshake) waiting for politicians when they leave office!
Oh, but if ED is used to pursue something the Constitution EXPLICITLY charges the government with providing (like defending the border), let the whining commence. Pathetic.
Lets review, the first one was from a source that you didn't like, so you said it wasn't true, and the second, which really was repeated by jerfoff himself in front of congress is to old. do I detect a little pie in the sky bias's here. I posted the link to those wavers here a month are so back, in case you are interested.
The waver for the hidalgo damn/levee is nothing more than home land security building a private lake for one of Hutchinson's friend. They are going to make the levee two foot higher and call it a fence
Pictures of current toy vehicles barriers are posted here on FR. Along with the pipe fencing they were trying, driven in the ground with welded cross bars on it to aide in climbing. The three layer fence is less than fifty miles long, if I recall. It’s not much.
That's what they plan to do. These property owners will have there land divided by the fence with some of their property "stranded" behind the fence.
The Border Patrol will deny the property is stranded because there will be an access gate a few miles away.
The market value of the stranded property will be zero.
Government Issues Waiver for Fencing Along Border By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOL
Published: April 2, 2008In a sweeping use of its authority, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that it would bypass environmental reviews to speed construction of fencing along the Mexican border.
Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, issued two waivers covering 470 miles of the border from California to Texas well as a separate 22-mile stretch in Hidalgo County, Tex., where the department plans to build fencing up to 18 feet high into a flood-control levee in a wildlife refuge.
“Criminal activity at the border does not stop for endless debate or protracted litigation,” Mr. Chertoff said in a statement.
The announcement angered environmental groups, which have raised concerns through lawsuits and public hearings about the damage that fencing could cause to wildlife. Property owners, particularly along the Rio Grande, have also objected to what they considered federal intrusion on their land and access to the river.
Previously, Mr. Chertoff had used his waiver authority three times to overcome environmental hurdles along limited segments of the border in San Diego and Arizona. But as the department strives to meet a deadline of year’s end for nearly 700 miles of fencing, he has now greatly expanded the use of his waiver authority, which was granted by Congress.
[end excerpt]
I wanter off to do some work and then remember this. The actual current up to date story of the bogus fence.http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/story/606847.html
I was off to do some work and then remembered this. The actual current up to date story of the bogus fence.http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/story/606847.html
I was off to do some work and then remembered this. The actual current up to date story of the bogus fence.http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/story/606847.html
something is wrong I did not click three times
You still have not grasped what the waivers are and what they do, have you? Nor do you appear to understand what a levee is, its function, and where levees are located. Oh, and the correct spelling is “waiver.” Words have meaning. Have you ever been to Hidalgo County? To Texas? Do you know what a “river” is, as opposed to a “lake”? Please locate on a map where in Hidalgo County the “private lake” is going to be located. Your first citation was inaccurate, your second one was dated. Do you have any idea what “pie in the sky” means? Are you a native speaker of English?
All true, and the property owners effected will be compensated handsomely for the lost value of their property, which they get to keep and continue to occupy and farm. I wish someone would offer me that deal. See the “Takings” clause of the Constitution.
That's not known, and if you look at other associated events, there are potential problems.
First, Congress has cut money out of this fence deal, so BP has less money to work with and is cutting corners.
Second, BP reneged on their original offer to the landowners for access to survey, which is what the lawsuit is about. Certainly BP has decieved landowners, including landowners who support the fence, about "temporary" access really being months.
Correct, after they get this fence built, the land stranded behind the fence will be used as staging areas by the smugglers. And Mexican squatters will be bring their goats across the river to graze.
"Since then, nearly 100 miles of 15- to 18-foot-high fencing and more than 140 miles of vehicle barriers have been built in California, Arizona and New Mexico. Much of the construction was done by National Guard personnel whom President Bush dispatched to the border in 2006 to assist the Border Patrol."
"As of last week, only six task orders, valued at $91.6 million, had been awarded for 25 miles of fencing in Arizona and New Mexico>"
"The goal is to erect a total of 370 miles of pedestrian fencing and 300 miles of vehicle fencing, including the sections that were in place before SBI. Planners envision 72 segments of pedestrian fence, most of which will be about five miles or less. Steel mesh or bollards -- tall posts rooted into the ground -- are the choice for PF225, while the Normandy barriers or rails welded to posts are being used for the vehicle barriers."
Now unless you have completely lost your ability to read the above from home land security says, they will build the fence given above, but these numbers include fence built prior to the 700 mile bill and the none existent virtual fence.
The above is from:http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/story/606847.html
Forget about Senator Kay, she doesn’t have anything to do with it. The Border Patrol Union is calling the shots.
She wrote and got passed the no fence bill.
As I said before, I am sure you are right! You are never wrong. You know all. But do you know what a waiver is? It is not a person wagging their hand back and forth.
The waiver as slick jerkoff is using it is not what a waver is. He has waved off the congress bill to build 700 miles of fence, saying they will try to build 30% of fence for a 2000 mile border, and will call two foot of dirt a fence and a non working invisible fence,that billions were spent on, part of the built fence.
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