More on that boondoggle known as "The Wall" (a tad long)

Maestro

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Tue Feb-19-08 08:38 PM
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More on that boondoggle known as "The Wall" (a tad long)

I was perusing through the Texas Observer on the web when I noticed this article. I have since noticed that it made Alter Net too. That is good because it needs exposure. Anyhow, it is about the border wall and how illogically this is being planned. First, let me categorically state that I feel that the fact that it is even being built is illogical since the problem lies with major corps, and some mom and pop organizations, that continue to offer employment to them, the undocumented worker, however to read this following article just makes me think that no one knows what to do or how to do it. There seems to be absolutely no oversight at all.

This is personal to me in that my mother's family is from England/Ireland/US/Mexico. Her family lived in Piedras Negras and Torreón, Mexico for years working for the railroads until Mexico nationalized the railroads and barred foreigners from working there during the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920. They then moved to Eagle Pass where my grandparents lived, my mother grew up and now the town in which my grandparents are buried. I have strong ties to Eagle Pass. It is not a happy place these days with all the drug trafficking coming through there as a result of the crackdowns in Juarez and Matamoros. Couple that with a poor economy and things are not cheery, but people persevere But just like drugs that continue to come here because there is a demand for it, so will the undocumented worker if there is a demand with or without a wall. The mayor of Eagle Pass is mentioned in the article. He states that DHS has completely dropped the ball in trying to provide answers to their questions as to why, for example, the wall will bypass an industrial park but destroy a city park. I bet I know which park it is too. There is a historical park in Eagle Pass that features the old buildings of an army base that used to be there protecting the city from the Villistas during the Revolution days in Mexico. It now features baseball fields and a beautiful wildlife/nature area that overlooks the Rio Grande. Hey, but save the industrial park and destroy the park! WTF! :eyes:

Further south down the border in the Lower Rio Grande Valley from which my wife hails and has family, there seems to be a problem with whose land is affected. If you are rich, your land is safe. If you are just Joe Blow or should I say, Jose Jimenez, then your house and land go! Then of course there are the business deals from which companies like Boeing are benefitting. The Wall is a money-making venture for some even though walls have never worked. They did not work in Berlin. The Palestinians still shoulder on despite walls all around them in Israel. The walls even fell in Jericho, IIRC!

Let's not forget the environmental impact which will be horrible. Texas is losing a fantastic rates its native lands only to be replaced by concrete. Now some of the most pristine lands which harbor a variety of wildlife from migrating birds (the LRGV is a large migratory area for birds) to the very endangered ocelot will be spoiled by a wall that will not serve its purpose.

Here are few snippets and a link to the rest of the article.

Brownsville resident Eloisa Tamez, 72, has one simple question. She would like to know why her land is being targeted for destruction by a border wall, while a nearby golf course and resort remain untouched.

Tamez, a nursing director at the University of Texas at Brownsville, is one of the last of the Spanish land grant heirs in Cameron County. Her ancestors once owned 12,000 acres. In the 1930s, the federal government took more than half of her inherited land, without paying a cent, to build flood levees.

Now Homeland Security wants to put an 18-foot steel and concrete wall through what remains. While the border wall will go through her backyard and effectively destroy her home, it will stop at the edge of the River Bend Resort and golf course, a popular Winter Texan retreat two miles down the road. The wall starts up again on the other side of the resort.

“It has a golf course and all of the amenities,” Tamez says. “There are no plans to build a wall there. If the wall is so important for security, then why are we skipping parts?”

Along the border, preliminary plans for fencing seem to target landowners of modest means and cities and public institutions such as the University of Texas at Brownsville, which rely on the federal government to pay their bills.

A visit to the River Bend Resort in late January reveals row after row of RVs and trailers with license plates from chilly northern U.S. states and Canadian provinces. At the edge of a lush, green golf course, a Winter Texan from Canada enjoys the mild, South Texas winter and the landscaped ponds, where white egrets pause to contemplate golf carts whizzing past. The woman, who declines to give her name, recounts that illegal immigrants had crossed the golf course once while she was teeing off. They were promptly detained by Border Patrol agents, she says, adding that agents often park their SUVs at the edge of the golf course.

River Bend Resort is owned by John Allburg, who incorporated the business in 1983 as River Bend Resort, Inc. Allburg refused to comment for this article. A scan of the Federal Election Commission and Texas Ethics Commission databases did not find any political contributions linked to Allburg.

Just 69 miles north, Daniel Garza, 76, faces a similar situation with a neighbor who has political connections that reach the White House. In the small town of Granjeno, population 313, Garza points to a field across the street where a segment of the proposed 18-foot high border wall would abruptly end after passing through his brick home and a small, yellow house he gave his son. “All that land over there is owned by the Hunts,” he says, waving a hand toward the horizon. “The wall doesn’t go there.”

In this area everyone knows the Hunts. Dallas billionaire Ray L. Hunt and his relatives are one of the wealthiest oil and gas dynasties in the world. Hunt, a close friend of President George W. Bush, recently donated $35 million to Southern Methodist University to help build Bush’s presidential library. In 2001, Bush made him a member of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, where Hunt received a security clearance and access to classified intelligence.

Please read the rest of the article here. I believe it to be very important.