Posted on 06/07/2008 12:38:29 PM PDT by 3AngelaD
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday he had attended the funerals of too many Border Patrol agents killed in the line of duty to permit environmentalists to block construction of barriers and all-weather road along the Texas...
Chertoff pitted the safety of Border Patrol agents against the efforts of environmentalists to stymie Bush administration plans to complete a border fence before leaving office in January. Some 670 miles of pedestrian fencing or vehicle barriers are planned along the 1,947-mile U.S.-Mexico boundary.
Chertoff, who has set aside some environmental restrictions to speed fence construction, said he didn't want to "get enmeshed in endless litigation" with environmentalists who he said opposed fencing and other improvements along the border that would help the Border Patrol...
Wayne Bartholomew, director with Frontera Audubon, a conservation organization in Lower Rio Grande Valley, called Chertoff's comments "disingenuous, false and misleading."
"This isn't about building an all-weather road," Bartholomew said. "It's about following a process, and that process includes over 100 years of laws established by the United States Congress. He has put communities at risk by waiving these laws..."
Chertoff has been battling resistance along the Texas border, including a recent federal lawsuit by the Texas Border Coalition that includes leaders from 10 Texas border communities from Brownsville to El Paso.
Chertoff, a former federal appeals court judge known for a no-nonsense style, said he remained willing to consult with critics but would not surrender the authority awarded him by ...Congress in 2005 to override environmental objections.
"We have had multiple meetings with some of the most bitter critics, people that we have talked to again and again," Chertoff said. "Now consultation means — we try to see if we can work out an accommodation. It it doesn't mean that a local official has a veto."...
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
You know, I’m just a bit suspicious of Chertoff’s motives given all that we’ve read of him.
Maybe I’m just being too critical to think he’s finally seen the light.
But the fence is needed for sure. Strange, after his “virtual” fence, his opposition to border security last year, etc.
It’s good the enviros weren’t around in WWII. D-Day and the various attacks on Japanese Islands sure caused a lot of ecological damage. Our entire military efforts would have been stopped by an injunction.
I remember an article about the TBC and Chertoff posted right here, which was notable (to me, at least), that a number of FReepers weren’t bothering to read it and instead were simply reacting to the headline. I’ll see if I can find it.
May be you should be Skeptical!
“He has put communities at risk by waiving these laws...”
That bs jumped right out at me too!
Yes, there have been multiple stories about this lawsuit, but as near as I can determine, it never was filed. I searched on Justia and Pacer. I also think it is interesting that Laredo is supposedly a party to the lawsuit, yet there is no fence planned for Laredo. Tells me there are several other agendas at work here.
I’ll see if I can find something. Strange, if true.
I question his motives after hearing some of the statements he has made and the virtual fence fiasco. The fence will have a positive impact on the environment if it keeps millions of illegals and their filthy garbage away from our border.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has begun using the Federal Judiciary's Case Management-Electronic Case Files computer system know as CM/ECF. However, this court has not put into place that part of CM/ECF which allows parties to file documents electronically and therefore those fillings will not appear on the docket in PACER. This feature will be available in the future.
https://ecf.cadc.uscourts.gov/
The dammed environmentalist crazies are going to be the death of all of us. We can't use our own oil reserves, and if that wasn't good enough, we can't even protect our borders. Some conservative leader, who is in ELECTED office, needs to grow a pair and call these bastards out for what they are!
Where the he*l has he been???????
You know, I’m just a bit suspicious of Chertoff’s motives given all that we’ve read of him.
Could it be because he is always talking out of both sides of his mouth?
For example: I went to the bank today and a mexican man at the teller next to me pulled out three california driver licences and thumbed through them as he matched the one he wanted with the account.
An instant solution to the immigration problem would be enforcement of false ID and enforcing the fines on employers hiring illegals.,
The fence is just a facade
This isn't an environmental lawsuit. See rudeboy's link at post #11. The suit alleges that Chertoff has failed to follow the law on taking of private property specifically established to deal with the issues regarding border fence construction.
Assuming the facts stated in the suit are correct, and the law cited in the suit are correct, then Chertoff has not actually been following the law, and it is another example where conservatives ought to be disgusted with this administration. There is almost nothing more sacred to conservatism than private property.
I found the text of the lawsuit on the tbc website, but I can find no indication that it has actually been filed. The filings routinely show up on Justia the next day, but it isn’t there, in any federal court.
I didn’t read the complaint, but I recall that TBC is suing based on DHS not giving adequate compensation to property owners (and other property rights issues), while Frontera Audubon is suing DHS because Chertoff waived some federal environmental laws that were holding up construction.
The facts stated in the lawsuit are incorrect. Read carefully what it says. Probably 85 percent of the fence will be built on property the government already owns along the border. No property owners were asked to surrender their property. They were asked to allow government surveyors to enter it, survey it and do tests such as soil borings on property adjacent to the river. This is a simple right to enter, in no way a taking of property or property rights. The Border Patrol has had a legion of lawyers working on this to ensure no one’s property rights are violated. For a vast majority of the property owners, this wasn’t an issue. According to the Associated Press, which is no friend of border security, the government is buying, legally, what little property it needs to acquire to build the fence. Before you go siding with TBC, check out Peter Schey, the lawyer who is supposedly filing this lawsuit. Conservatives have no reason to be disgusted at the way the fence project is being conducted, except with the petty tyrant patrons in the totally corrupt local governments in South Texas that are no better than their Mexican counterparts, and in many ways worse. Check out Judge Hanen’s final rulings in the last round of lawsuits that attempted to stop the fence, that were based on essentially the same accusations.
Texas Border Coalition This fence should have been done and finished within 2 years of 9-11, here we are 6 years later and six million anchor babies later
yep I was going to type skeptical too, lol ...
yep!!!
I am sure they will find a pug-nosed gollywhopper or something which requires heaps of discarded clothing, backpacks, and trash, in which to breed and rear its young.
Of course, it will be "endangered".
Yes, you would think those in charge of overseeing our security would have ordered the fence built within two years of 9/11. But Congress, in its wisdom, did not provide direction, or funding for any fence projects until 2006, that is, beginning in fy 2007.
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