[NYTr] Chertoff Gives Texans "Last Chance Ultimatum" on Border Wall

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP via Houston Chronicle - Dec 6, 2007
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5358580.html


Texas landowners to be given ultimatum on border fence

Chertoff allowing them last chance for access before taking court action

By Suzanne Gamboa
Associated Press

Washington - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is giving
Texas landowners opposed to a border fence one last chance to allow
access to their land before he takes court action against them, a Texas
senator said Thursday.

Sen. John Cornyn said letters from the Department of Homeland Security
are expected to go out today. But for those who refuse access, the
department would likely seek a court order to enter the property, he
said.

"He assured me that negotiations would continue and his hope is the vast
majority of these cases could be resolved without litigation. Maybe in a
handful of cases litigation would be required," he said.

A Homeland Security Department spokesman was not immediately available
for comment.

President Bush last year approved 700 miles of fencing and barriers on
the U.S.-Mexico border. Unlike other states, most land in Texas is in
private hands.

Some landowners along the border have opposed government plans to build
fencing to curb illegal immigration on the Texas-Mexico border.

"All that will do is fire people up more down here," John McClung,
president of the Texas Produce Association, said of the impending
letters.

"Nothing makes a landowner more unhappy than the idea of condemnation of
land, the idea of being forced to turn land over to government," McClung
said.

Several members of the group could lose access to the Rio Grande, which
they rely on for irrigating crops or to rich farm land that abuts the
river.

Opponents have criticized the government for failing to keep them fully
informed on fence plans and refusing to listen to residents' proposals
for alternatives to the fence.

"It's just a continuation of a battle with our government. We are for
security. However, the way they are approaching solving security
problems, we just disagree with," said McAllen Mayor Richard Cortez.
"We just don't see how a non-continuous fence, when you have 6,000
miles of land borders, is going to stop terrorism and illegal
immigration. We continue to believe it is a waste of taxpayers' money."

Federal officials say they need access to the land to assess possible
sites for the fence. They say the fence is one of several tools being
used to curb illegal border crossings, including "virtual fence" and
more patrols.

Cornyn said Chertoff told him about 40 landowners have refused to
provide access to their land. Of the total, 110 have not responded or
can't be located and 258 have given the government the access, a
congressional official familiar with the statistics said on condition
of anonymity because the Homeland Security Department had not released
them.