Immigration Law

The Dallas Morning News has an article today stating that in 2008 construction will begin on approximately 150 miles of fencing along the Texas-Mexico border. This fence project has been the subject of heated debate in the border communities. The fear is that a fence, which will of course have to be built on the Texas side of the Rio Grande, and not in the river itself, will have both environmental and economic adverse effects on Texas and Texans.

Many landowners will see their property bisected by the fence, and many more will lose access to needed water from the river. Small businesses along the border are concerned that they will lose customers if border crossings become less convenient for Mexicans authorized to come to Texas.

Here are excerpts from the article:

More than 150 miles of fencing is to be constructed along the Rio Grande in Texas. Fourteen miles of fence was built in El Paso several years ago.

"We're going to see steel barriers erected on the borders where U.S. and Mexican cities adjoin. These will slow down illegal crossers by minutes, but that will be long enough for agents to turn them back," Chief Hill said.

"In the open areas outside the cities, we'll build a virtual fence that uses radar to detect entry and then key a camera to that point."

Opposition to the fence by politicians, business leaders and border residents has been loud.

"It's one of the few issues around which virtually every group along the border is organized and united," Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas said earlier this year. "No one on the border likes the wall. But Washington isn't listening."