DHS Bypasses Laws to Build Fence
By Kevin Sieff, The Brownsville Herald, Texas
Apr. 2–Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced plans to bypass more than 30 laws and regulations in an effort to build 670 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border by the end of this year, according to a statement released Tuesday.
DHS will use two waivers-both of which were approved by Congress-to expedite the construction of the border fence, sidestepping environmental laws that currently stand in the way of the federal government’s plans.
“These waivers will enable important security projects to keep moving forward,” Chertoff said in a prepared statement. He also said that DHS would conduct an environmental review before any major construction.
One waiver applies to various project areas in the four border states, while the other deals specifically with the planned levee-fence in Hidalgo County. The Hidalgo County project has recently encountered criticism from federal wildlife officials.
In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told U.S. Customs and Border Protection — a division of the Department of Homeland Security — that its plan to combine Rio Grande flood levees with the border fence in Hidalgo County was a threat to a critical habitat in the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
Despite the environmental concerns over the levee-fence, Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas called the expedition of the structure “a positive development for the residents of Hidalgo County,” adding that it will protect property and people from the threat of a dangerous flood.
Brownsville Mayor Pat M. Ahumada, a longtime critic of the border fence, is concerned about the $125 million that the Valley’s ecological corridor brings into the region annually.
“With these waivers, they can get away without doing an economic impact study,” Ahumada said. “They’re going to do whatever it takes to build this fence, even if it means suspending all laws.”
The waivers also came as a blow to Cameron County landowners currently embroiled in lawsuits with the federal government over access to their property. DHS has long spoken of the need to survey land prior to the fence’s construction — a measure that federal officials claimed would prevent damage to sensitive environmental and archaeological sites. The waivers now enable DHS to begin construction without considering the impact on such sites.
In recent cases in Brownsville and McAllen, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen addressed the need for negotiations between landowners and DHS.
“I own a pair of jeans and work boots,” he said during a recent border fence-related hearing, “I’ll go out there myself to work this thing out, if that’s what it takes.”
But landowners like Eloisa Tamez, whose case is currently pending, say they are hearing one thing from Hanen and another from DHS.
“Here we have a judge who seems to be doing his job as he’s supposed to, following the Constitution,” she said. “And on the other end there’s Chertoff, disregarding laws to finish the project.”
After hearing of the waivers, Tamez called U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, but received no response.
“No one is walking with us,” she said. “We’re sitting in a part of America that doesn’t feel like America.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Ortiz issued a written statement on the federal government’s assertion of executive power.
“With these waivers, DHS will no longer need input from the people that matter the most — those in our border communities — to proceed with their plans,” Ortiz wrote. “This is absolutely unacceptable for a government to plow ahead and ignore the concerns of our citizens.”
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