Breaks in border fence have residents suspicious of DHS's plans

Breaks in border fence have residents suspicious of DHS's plans
By Kevin Sieff, The Brownsville Herald
June 21, 2008 - 11:16PM

When the border fence is constructed along the Rio Grande, Fermin Leal will watch as the barrier slices through the backyards of his neighbors, bypassing his 500-acre farm in San Pedro.

The fence's trajectory, incontiguous and largely unexplained, has left many border residents suspicious of the federal government's plans.

"I'm still not sure how my land is different than theirs," Leal said. "They still haven't given us any answers."

The fence will run nearly unabated through Brownsville before stopping at River Bend Resort and golf course. It will break again for nearly seven miles in San Pedro, where the federal government and several developers own large swaths of land.

On the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's preliminary map, breaks in the fence - some more than 10 miles wide - also appear near the rural communities of Santa Maria and Los Indios.

The exemptions have fed suspicions that money and political connections dictated DHS' construction plans. But those who own land between segments of fencing might soon face problems of their own.

Officials at DHS have made it clear that unfenced stretches of land will become a focal point for undocumented immigrants and illegal activity.

"These segments will serve as funnels, allowing us to concentrate our resources, like agents, technology and equipment, in these areas," said Barry Morrissey, a DHS spokesman.

He added that the funneling phenomenon has been well documented in Yuma and Tucson, where the fence has already been constructed. In San Pedro and River Bend, where rumors of the communities' exemptions have spread, residents are already concerned about safety issues.

"They're funneling the activity to where the community is," Leal said. "If you're going to funnel people, don't do it in a populated area."

West of Brownsville on Military Highway, two schools - Villa Nueva Elementary School and a high school under construction - along with a number of residential neighborhoods will lie between stretches of fencing.

"They are mostly good people who cross through here," said David Castillo, who has lived in the Luz y Cielo subdivision in San Pedro for 12 years. "But there are some bad ones, too."

Less than a quarter of the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector's domain, which stretches 316 miles along the river, will have fencing, said Ronald Vitiello, the sector's chief. But in the places where the barrier goes up, it is sure to change life.


FROM QUIET TO CONTROVERSIAL

A few miles west of Brownsville, the normally quiet stretch of land along Military Highway has been abuzz in recent months since the government began purchasing private land to build the fence. More than 100 land condemnation lawsuits have been filed in Cameron County in the last month.

Eloisa Tamez rejected the government's initial offer of $13,500 for a .25-acre sliver of her land. She wants to know why it is necessary to construct the fence in her backyard, but not a few miles east, on the River Bend golf course.

"We're not being afforded equal protection," Tamez said. "It's blatant discrimination,"

Residents of River Bend are themselves perplexed by their community's exemption. A homeland security map shows a small break in the fence where River Bend's 18-hole golf course is located. The course's 6th and 10th holes trace the Rio Grande.

"It makes me sick because everyone is going to know the reason we don't have a fence here is money," said Roberta Alvarez, who has lived in River Bend for 23 years. "It irritates me to my bones."

She and her husband, Jose, are among the few year-round residents in a community made up largely of Winter Texans, many of whom own second or third homes in River Bend. Alvarez initially liked that the community was quiet and unassuming. Before the fence's construction plans were announced, the biggest controversy in River Bend was over the number of speed bumps.

That tranquil slice of life, Alvarez said, will soon end.

River Bend's owner, John Allburg, declined comment, and has yet to explain how the border fence will affect the community, or address the reasons why River Bend will be bypassed, residents at the resort said.

Allburg's silence has left residents, like Alvarez, to speculate about the fence's trajectory.

"The owners of River Bend paid off the government," she said. "That's the only reason it would start at one end (of the community) and stop at the other."

At a congressional hearing in April, Vitiello, the Border Patrol sector chief, said that DHS took his sector's operational assessment into account before finalizing plans.

"The fence's path was determined after evaluating where security concerns were present," he said.

Despite Vitiello's explanation, River Bend's exemption makes little sense to residents who have watched undocumented immigrants cut through the golf course for years.

"We had a gardener who used to cross the river every day to get to work," said Joe Travis, who owns several properties in River Bend. "He never had any problems."


RUMORS IN SAN PEDRO

A few miles west of River Bend, where Brownsville's northernmost neighborhoods devolve into stretches of farmland, developers have been eyeing land along the Rio Grande. The city's northward boom has made its way to San Pedro, where signs advertise soon-to-be-built communities like Rancho Simpatico and Gem Estates II and III.

The streets of Rancho Simpatico, which advertises itself as "Brownsville's Upper West Side," are paved and ready for traffic. Properties are currently being sold and a riverside park is in the works.

Promotional sketches of the community show playgrounds and families on a narrow swatch if land along the Rio Grande. Any indication of a border fence is absent in the residential plans.

Like River Bend Resort, a large stretch of land in San Pedro, about seven miles, will not have border fencing. And like in River Bend, there are suspicions that connections and money dictated the government's plans.

In the last eight years, Dixon LeGros has contributed $2,300 to U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a co-sponsor of the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which introduced the border fence to Congress. Hunter, a staunch advocate of border fencing, visited Brownsville for a congressional hearing in April and made his views clear on a controversial issue.

"In San Diego," he said at the hearing, "the fence put the border gangs out of business because they lost their ability to move back and forth."

Paula LeGros said her husband's support of congressman Hunter is related to concerns over the San Diego ship repair industry.

"It has nothing to do with the border fence," she said. "I'm sure Duncan Hunter has absolutely no idea about the (land) in Texas."

FEDERAL LAND UNSCATHED

In the center of Fermin Leal's farm, which his father purchased in 1919, a strip of land owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department runs untouched for nearly one-half mile.

To Leal, it's another possible reason why the fence is bypassing his land. But without confirmation from DHS, Leal can only guess at the federal government's rationale.

"Even at the public meetings," he said, "they never brought us up to date."

After recent news that the Sabal Palm Audubon Center will likely be forced to close due to the fence's construction, many Brownsville residents are sensitive to where breaks in the barrier are, and aren't located.

On DHS's preliminary map, breaks in the fence also appear near the rural communities of Santa Maria and Los Indios. Some of the gaps are are more than ten miles wide.

Some environmentalists wonder if federal wildlife reserves are being favored over autonomous reserves.

Ken Merritt, a former project manager for the Department of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), said federal refuge managers had little interaction with DHS about the fence.

"Part of it was just a question of the number of miles they could afford to build," he said.

Now, Merritt worries that human traffic and border patrol activity will shift to FWS land in San Pedro.

"It's going to be an eye opener for us to see the damage to this area," Merritt said.

Others, like Oscar Garcia, the police chief of the Brownsville Independent School District, are preparing for what might become a unique security concern.

"We've talked with Border Patrol about threats to (Villa Nueva Elementary and the new high school), and multi-jurisdictional responses," Garcia said. "Where there is no fence, we've been told electronic surveillance will be used."

But Garcia, along with Leal and his neighbors on the border, can only wait to see where the federal government decides to put up fencing.

"We'll just have to see where they build this thing," Leal said. "That's all there is to do."
Rancho Simpatico

is owned by Paula LeGros and Dixon LeGros, the chief financial officer and president, respectively, of Westflex Industrial, a San Diego-based hose and gasket company. The company's annual sales in 2004 were $6.6 million, according to Industrial Distribution magazine.

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/border_87851___article.html/fence_pedro.html