Archive for November, 2009

GAPS!

Monday, November 16th, 2009
A sign for a hiking trail points straight at the border wall.

A sign for a hiking trail points straight at the border wall.

There are still many gaps in the fence that are in need of gates and in some places it is not clear if the gaps will become gates, and if so what kind of gates.  For example, the Hidalgo Pump House, a World Birding Center, has a gap in the wall where naturalists can enter the trails that lead to the Rio Grande River.  A border patrol vehicle usually patrols right at this gap.  During a number of visit to the Hidalgo Pump House we have yet to see anyone access these trails.  Indeed, for many the idea of approaching a border patrol agent to seek permission to hike on nature trails on the south side of the Wall is daunting.  It is not clear if the Birding Center will get a gate or will border patrol check the nationality of anyone bird watching on the South side of the Wall.

The border wall at Brownsville Texas.

The border wall at Brownsville Texas.

Near Brownsville the Loop family owns a home that will now be on the south side of the Wall.  DHS has yet to full inform the family on what type of gate will be put in place to allow the family to access their land.  The gaps normally measure about ten feet.  Unless the gate is not mechanized, it will be too heavy for many to open.  The story can be found at:  http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/articles/moves-104925-border-orchard.html#slComments

During a recent trip to the Wall we drove down to a number of gaps along clearly marked county roads.  The gaps are now a favorite place for border patrol agents to patrol.  We were stopped and told that we could not proceed because south of the Wall was private property.  Our protests that we were on a public road were not heard so we had to turn back.

It is amazing that so little planning has gone into the construction of gates.  Without the gates, and only the gaps, the Wall does seem like a fiasco. However, the end result might be to force landowners to give up claims on their properties south of the Wall.  Indeed, naturalists are now not able to access Sabal Palm Audobon Center.  Is it only a matter of time that the birding trails at the Hidalgo Pump House will officially become closed.

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Is the U.S. Mexico Border Wall the New Berlin Wall?

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Texas State Representative Aaron Pena has called for the tearing down of the U.S. Mexico Border Wall to mark the 20th anniversary of the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. The comparison to the Berlin Wall is one of the major points of anti-border wall activists though pro-border wall forces argue that the Berlin Wall kept people in while that U.S. Mexico Wall keeps people out.? I have included Rep. Pena’s comments below, as published in the Rio Grande Guardian .? Comments?

Pena: Tear down this Wall
9 November 2009
Aaron Pena

[President
President Ronald Reagan called on Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. Twenty years ago, students from East and West Germany did so.

EDINBURG, Nov. 9 – The Berlin Wall fell twenty years ago on Nov. 9, 1989, ending almost 30 years of family separation of a singular community.

On a day like today it is always fitting to remember President Reagan’s speech at the Berlin Wall. Perhaps the most momentous event in the last half of the 20th century took place on this date The Berlin Wall came down.

“We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Reagan said.

Interestingly enough and rightfully so, most Americans see it as a symbolic end of tyranny. Here in the borderlands of this country, on the edges of my legislative district, Americans forget that a similar wall was constructed (sadly with the help of misguided elected officials) separating family members and a singular community.

How long will it take the people of this country to see the contradictions in today’s celebrations while we continue to construct our own wall in my community’s backyard. I hope to live to see the day. In the meantime, I join in the celebrations ending this symbol of tyranny.

Here in South Texas we ask that our nation continue to remember this day, as we undoubtedly will, with the vivid and wasteful reminder that we live with here along the border. After the fear diminishes and the recognition of the enormous cost to our country is realized maybe we here on the border can find an additional reason to celebrate. Until then this day shall remain bitter-sweet.

Today is a day when all lovers of freedom can happily proclaim their rejection on any attempt to divide a people. In the words of a wise president, “Tear Down this Wall!”

Aaron Pena is Texas state representative for District 40. A Democrat, he resides in Edinburg, Texas.

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Younger Texans more liberal on immigration, how does the RGV compare?

Friday, November 6th, 2009

As reported by the Texas Tribune see link below, immigration is the top concern of Texas voters and more than half say that undocumented immigrants should be deported while 41% believe that immigrants should be allowed to assimilate. However, younger voters and minorities favor assimilation while older Anglos favor deportation.? According to the poll conducted by The University of Texas/Texas Tribune, 52% of voters age 18 to 29 favor assimilation while 32% favor deportation.? Latinos favor assimilation, 69%, while 20% deportation.

It is curios that the choices are assimilation versus deportation. I wonder how these numbers compare with attitudes of residents in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, any comments?

http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2009/nov/05/mixed-impressions-inside-poll-numbers/

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Why are we not talking about citizenship?

Thursday, November 5th, 2009
An editorial about border security, published by the New York Times on September 21, 2009, emphasizes the high cost of the border wall and the lack of ways to evaluate its effectiveness. The editorial rightly calls for broader immigration reform. In a reply that we wrote to the editorial, that was not published, we noted that there is a higher price that should be emphasized—the denial of citizenship.? We include our response and the original editorial below.Any comments?
Border Fantasies rightly criticizes the cost of building the border wall and lack of oversight. As anthropologists studying border wall construction, citizens of South Texas shocked us when they explained that the United States government ignored over 30 laws to expedite construction, ranging from environmental laws to historic preservation laws. Our research demonstrates that these waivers severely limit the ability of local citizens, landowners and politicians–including border city mayors–to challenge fence construction. For many Texans, DHS??s circumvention of established laws created an atmosphere of distrust and extreme frustration. In effect, Congress and DHS stripped Texans of their legal rights. Congress needs to look at the costs associated with the border wall, both fiscally and as an affront to our democracy.”

BORDER FANTASIES

Members of Congress who voted for the Southwest border fence as the fix for illegal immigration professed shock? shock at the news that the project is running years behind, and billions of dollars ahead, of the Bush administrations early, rosy projections.

Auditors reported last week that the high-tech, 28-mile virtual section of the fence was running a mere seven years behind this months planned opening. Initially, designers talked of using off-the-shelf technology for the radar, cameras and other sensors, but problems cropped up. (Imagine, discovering that cameras tremble in rough weather.) I am trying to figure out why this is so difficult, said Representative Michael McCaul of Texas. ??These are basically cameras on a pole.??

The current cost estimate for the Buck Rogers barrier? $1.1 billion.

Investigators from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office report that the larger, actual fence covering a 600 mile-plus stretch between San Diego and Brownsville, Tex. cost $2.4 billion to build and will cost an extra $6.5 billion in upkeep across two decades.

Investigators also concluded that theres no good way of gauging the effectiveness of the fence.

The current decline in border arrests could be because of the bad economy as much as the fence (which the innovative have already learned to breach with cutters, torches and ladders). Even then, the fence covers only the more manageable third of the border with Mexico.

Members of the House border security subcommittee voiced grave concern but did not peer much beyond fencing technology to the more complex reality: the need for Congress to reform the nations immigration laws. No fence can keep a determined immigrant out or absolve Congress of that responsibility.

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The Texas Rangers on the Border

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Americo Paredes, writing about the Texas Rangers in the early 1900s, describes them as a force whose main goal was to create terror among border residents. Now, with Governor Perry sending a special tactical unit of Texas Rangers to secure the U.S. Mexico Border this historical memory of the rangers (or rinches) is now bringing back memories of this violence.

Consider the following post in the blog South Texas Chisme (http://stxc.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html):

“They seem to be speaking to the Anglo populace, because they sure are not speaking to me. Am I supposed to be thrilled that Perry is bringing Los Rinches back? They just don’t get it, do they? Now comes PERRY – an Anglo – to remind us Mexicans/Chicanos that the killer Texas Rangers are still alive and well. Known by Mexicans as Los Rinches de Tejas ? these foul-mouthed lawmen too often took the law into their own hands and lynched Mexicans simply because they were there and because they were defenseless.

By some estimates, thousands of Mexicans were lynched by Los Rinches who, in their brutality, executed them without suffering any repercussions from Texas courts. Los Rinches would falsely arrest Mexicans and would promptly lynch them, without benefit of a court trial or any other venue where the person’s guilt or innocence could be proved.

In the period from 1848 to 1870, some official records show that 473 out of every 100,000 Mexican migrant workers died at the hands of Los Rinches. In the 1850s, Tejanos faced expulsion from their Central Texas homes on the accusation that they helped slaves escape to Mexico. Others became victims of Anglo wrath around the Goliad area during the Cart War of 1857, as they did in South Texas in 1859 after Juan N. Cortinas’ capture of Brownsville.”

Our question is to what extent does this quote capture the views and sentiments of border residents. Any ideas?

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