Border Fence Suit to Be Heard in El Paso

By Diana Washington Valdez, El Paso Times, Texas

Jul. 16–The legal showdown between opponents and advocates of the U.S. border fence will take place in El Paso’s federal courthouse and not in Washington, D.C., El Paso County Commissioner Veronica Escobar said Tuesday.

“A court date has not been set yet, but the decision has been made to hear the case in El Paso in U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo’s court,” said Escobar, a panel member who spoke at a UTEP forum on the effects of the fence on the community.

Escobar also said the court case would make it easier for the affected community to take part in the ongoing debate over the border fence.

In June, a lawsuit over the border fence was filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of the city, county and other entities against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Michael Chertoff.

The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of waivers of federal, state and local laws used to expedite the construction of barriers along 670 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. Congress granted Chertoff the authority to impose such waivers.

Victor Manjarrez Jr., chief of the Border Patrol in El Paso, said the fence, which is being constructed this year, has not caused serious problems in the region because “most of it is on federal land or other public land, and in New Mexico, where a small part of it was on private land, the property owner received fair market value as compensation.”

Also forum panelists were Fernando Garcia, director of the Border Network for Human Rights, and Bob Currey, managing director of the UTEP Center for Environmental Resource Management.

Garcia said his organization was concerned about the deaths of undocumented immigrants caused by border security policies, and the way such immigrants are lumped with terrorists and criminals such as human and drug smugglers.

Currey said the fence, which would affect the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park in far east El Paso, could be good or bad for the environment depending on where it is built.

He said the presidential advisory Good Neighbor Environmental Board recommends stronger collaboration between security and environmental protection agencies and a strategic mix of technology and staff.

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Copyright (c) 2008, El Paso Times, Texas

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