The Border Fence: "Is America's border fence working, or an utter waste? NOW travels to Texas to meet families on the U.S.-Mexico border who fear losing their property, their safety, and their way of life."
Illegal LA: "The "debate" over illegal immigration in the United States has always been dominated by hotheads—pissy, sloganeering loudmouths on either sides of the fence drawn together by their shared love of yelling crap on radio call-in shows and steering the dialogue away from anything approaching a solution. And since the 9/11 attacks (carried out by 16 legal immigrants and three on expired visas), the discussion has basically devolved into an incomprehensible jumble. Like did you ever see those supposedly pro-immigrant "A Day With No Mexicans" ads where everyone’s sad that there’s nobody to mow lawns or sell tacos? Who’d they get to write those, the KKK? Seriously, the whole thing just makes us want to shut off our brains and watch Reba or something. But then we remember the lives of some 12 million people hang in the balance of this pissing match (as well as the American economy, welfare, national security, etc), and it’s like, "[exagerated sigh] OK, [rolling up sleeves] looks like we’ll have to wrestle this away from the assholes after all."
In Illegal LA, VBS heads to Los Angeles, the US locus of Latin American migrants and a flashpoint for recent anti-immigrant tensions, in an attempt to suss out the full nature of la reconquista instead of just trying to yell “We’re all immigrants!/Speak English!” until it looks like we’re about to hemorrhage from our eyeballs. Check out the Illegal LA showpage for more information."
Showing posts with label border fence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label border fence. Show all posts
8/22/08
8/8/08
Texas U. officials say fence undermines school's mission, By Christopher Sherman
The steel fence that the U.S. government wants to build along the Mexican border would do more than slice through the University of Texas' Brownsville campus and cut off the golf course from the rest of the school.
School officials say it would make a mockery of the very mission of the university: promoting close ties between the U.S. and Mexico.
The university — built close to the Rio Grande on land where the United States and Mexico traded cannon blasts during the Mexican-American War 160 years ago — recruits Mexican students, offers government and business classes in English and Spanish and turns out sorely needed bilingual teachers. It has a biological field station in Mexico and hosts educators at a Binational Conference every spring. About 400 of the 17,000 students are from Mexico, and more than half of them commute across the river to class.
The fence, if built as envisioned by the U.S. Border Patrol, would run a mile north of the Rio Grande, the international boundary, cutting off about 180 acres of the 465-acre campus. University officials say it would also thwart its hopes of expanding someday toward the river, and send the wrong message across the border.
"To slice off and fence off the 'bi' part of 'binational' violates the essence of this university," said university President Juliet V. Garcia, whose office is situated in what was once the thick-walled, tan-brick hospital at Fort Brown, built shortly after the Civil War.
On Monday, university officials will ask a federal judge to force government officials to work with the school on alternatives to the fence, continuing a long-running legal fight that began when the Department of Homeland Security sued the school for refusing to allow surveyors onto its property.
In March, a federal judge ordered Homeland Security to consider the school's "unique status as an institution of higher learning" in minimizing the impact on the "environment, culture, commerce and quality of life" at the university. But the two sides have been unable to agree on some kind of alternative to a fence.
In a May 27 letter to the university, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that in place of a fence, it would have to station Border Patrol agents every 50 yards along the 3.4 mile-stretch around campus, and the salaries alone would amount to $71 million.
A Border Patrol spokesman said the matter would be addressed in court and refused further comment.
The fence is being erected away from the Rio Grande for fear it could alter the flow of floodwaters and illegally change the international border.
People will still be able to reach the university from Mexico by way of the three international bridges that connect Brownsville to Matamoros, Mexico.
The Bush administration is hurrying to build 670 miles of the border fence by the end of the year.
The school's architecture reflects the twin influences on the region: Its older buildings are 19th-century remnants of Fort Brown, with tan brick walls, galvanized steel roofs and shaded arcades. Other buildings are Spanish-influenced, with tile, towers and terra cotta roofs.
The land the golf course is on belongs to the International Boundary and Water Commission, but the university holds a 99-year lease on it. The government contends it can build parts of the fence on the property without the university's consent.
The school, a part of the University of Texas system since 1991, said it cannot get a firm answer from the government on whether there will be a gate or some other opening that will enable students to reach the 165-acre course, which generates revenue for the university.
Also left in the no-man's land south of the fence would be the ruins of old Fort Texas, which was built during the Mexican-American War in 1846 and now consists of little more than earthen mounds.
"Of course, we believe in protecting our borders," the university president wrote in an open letter to students in January. "Of course, we believe in strong immigration policy. But we also understand that a fence, no matter how high or how wide, is no substitute for either."
In court papers, the university said that at a meeting earlier this month between Border Patrol Sector Chief Ron Vitiello and school officials, a conversation about alternatives ended abruptly when Vitiello told them their efforts were a "waste of time."
"He wanted to stop the conversation instantly," said Michael Putegnat, a consultant hired by the university.
Post-Sept. 11 border security measures have already reduced the number of Mexicans who legally cross the border for English classes at the campus, said John Robey, a political science professor. The fence, he said, just adds insult to inconvenience.
"They think that it's xenophobia run amok," he said.
Some students said they fear the fence will send the wrong message about them.
"You're trying to divide the world," said Omar Diaz, 20, a government major from Victoria, Mexico.
Allison Valles, an accounting major from Texas and a member of the golf team, said that the fence does more than pose a threat to her favorite activity.
"UTB is trying to portray an image of bringing everybody together, but we would have this wall between us," Valles said.
**Story Link
School officials say it would make a mockery of the very mission of the university: promoting close ties between the U.S. and Mexico.
The university — built close to the Rio Grande on land where the United States and Mexico traded cannon blasts during the Mexican-American War 160 years ago — recruits Mexican students, offers government and business classes in English and Spanish and turns out sorely needed bilingual teachers. It has a biological field station in Mexico and hosts educators at a Binational Conference every spring. About 400 of the 17,000 students are from Mexico, and more than half of them commute across the river to class.
The fence, if built as envisioned by the U.S. Border Patrol, would run a mile north of the Rio Grande, the international boundary, cutting off about 180 acres of the 465-acre campus. University officials say it would also thwart its hopes of expanding someday toward the river, and send the wrong message across the border.
"To slice off and fence off the 'bi' part of 'binational' violates the essence of this university," said university President Juliet V. Garcia, whose office is situated in what was once the thick-walled, tan-brick hospital at Fort Brown, built shortly after the Civil War.
On Monday, university officials will ask a federal judge to force government officials to work with the school on alternatives to the fence, continuing a long-running legal fight that began when the Department of Homeland Security sued the school for refusing to allow surveyors onto its property.
In March, a federal judge ordered Homeland Security to consider the school's "unique status as an institution of higher learning" in minimizing the impact on the "environment, culture, commerce and quality of life" at the university. But the two sides have been unable to agree on some kind of alternative to a fence.
In a May 27 letter to the university, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that in place of a fence, it would have to station Border Patrol agents every 50 yards along the 3.4 mile-stretch around campus, and the salaries alone would amount to $71 million.
A Border Patrol spokesman said the matter would be addressed in court and refused further comment.
The fence is being erected away from the Rio Grande for fear it could alter the flow of floodwaters and illegally change the international border.
People will still be able to reach the university from Mexico by way of the three international bridges that connect Brownsville to Matamoros, Mexico.
The Bush administration is hurrying to build 670 miles of the border fence by the end of the year.
The school's architecture reflects the twin influences on the region: Its older buildings are 19th-century remnants of Fort Brown, with tan brick walls, galvanized steel roofs and shaded arcades. Other buildings are Spanish-influenced, with tile, towers and terra cotta roofs.
The land the golf course is on belongs to the International Boundary and Water Commission, but the university holds a 99-year lease on it. The government contends it can build parts of the fence on the property without the university's consent.
The school, a part of the University of Texas system since 1991, said it cannot get a firm answer from the government on whether there will be a gate or some other opening that will enable students to reach the 165-acre course, which generates revenue for the university.
Also left in the no-man's land south of the fence would be the ruins of old Fort Texas, which was built during the Mexican-American War in 1846 and now consists of little more than earthen mounds.
"Of course, we believe in protecting our borders," the university president wrote in an open letter to students in January. "Of course, we believe in strong immigration policy. But we also understand that a fence, no matter how high or how wide, is no substitute for either."
In court papers, the university said that at a meeting earlier this month between Border Patrol Sector Chief Ron Vitiello and school officials, a conversation about alternatives ended abruptly when Vitiello told them their efforts were a "waste of time."
"He wanted to stop the conversation instantly," said Michael Putegnat, a consultant hired by the university.
Post-Sept. 11 border security measures have already reduced the number of Mexicans who legally cross the border for English classes at the campus, said John Robey, a political science professor. The fence, he said, just adds insult to inconvenience.
"They think that it's xenophobia run amok," he said.
Some students said they fear the fence will send the wrong message about them.
"You're trying to divide the world," said Omar Diaz, 20, a government major from Victoria, Mexico.
Allison Valles, an accounting major from Texas and a member of the golf team, said that the fence does more than pose a threat to her favorite activity.
"UTB is trying to portray an image of bringing everybody together, but we would have this wall between us," Valles said.
**Story Link
12/18/07
US-Mexico Border Fence Gets Cut in Half, from Foreign Policy's Top 10 Stories of 2007
In the run-up to the 2006 U.S. midterm elections, conservative lawmakers—desperate to show supporters they were making progress on immigration and border security—easily passed the Secure Fence Act, authorizing the construction of 700 miles of double-layered, reinforced fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. Lost in the shuffle was the fact that Congress had only earmarked enough money to build 370 miles' worth of wall. Give it another budget year, the barrier's strongest backers said, and the rest of the cash would surely make its way south.
But they might want to check with the chief of U.S. Border Patrol, David Aguilar. The military industry's National Defense magazine reported that at an April press conference, Aguilar suggested that the physical fence will indeed stop at the 370-mile mark. Making up the remaining 330 miles will be a "virtual" wall of surveillance and radar equipment, hardly the kind of compromise that will satisfy those who, like Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter, want the entire 1,933-mile border double-fenced and topped with razor wire. A spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency says that hundreds of miles of vehicle barriers—concrete tubes set in the ground to prevent cars from crossing the border—are also due to be built by the end of 2008. But those who wanted a Fortress America are finding that Washington's plan for their beloved fence is full of holes.
**Story Link
**Image Courtesy of Luis Acosta/Getty Images
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