Government says no decisions have been made about border fence

[babylonsister]

Backtracking now, eh? DHS manages to piss everyone off once again.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/17180974.htm

Government says no decisions have been made about border fence
By Dave Montgomery
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The Department of Homeland Security, hoping to mute an uproar across the border reaches of Texas, fired off letters to more than two dozen local officials Friday to assure them that no final decisions had been made on the placement of a controversial border fence.

The letters - dispatched to sheriffs and political leaders in 16 cities and 18 counties - came in response to an angry reaction stirred by the disclosure of confidential DHS memos and maps detailing plans for a 153-mile stretch of the border fence in Texas. The Texas barrier is part of more than 700 miles of fencing that Congress mandated last year along all four U.S. states bordering Mexico.

"No final decisions have been made on where all of the fencing will be constructed," said the letter, co-signed by W. Ralph Basham, commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a branch of Homeland Security, and Anne P. Petera, DHS assistant secretary for intergovernmental programs.

The letter-writing blitz came two days after south Texas business and political leaders held a news conference in Austin to accuse federal authorities of reneging on promises to work closely with them in laying out the barrier. Many local leaders have said DHS officials led them to believe that the barrier would primarily be a "virtual wall" consisting of high-tech surveillance, instead of a traditional fence.

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