By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN

McALLEN, Texas

A federal bid request to build three hotly contested pieces of the border fence in Cameron County has turned up the pressure on local officials and landowners still holding out.

Brownsville and its county have been the nerve center for some of the most outspoken opposition to the fence along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.

The local university has railed against the fence, which would divide its campus, and landowners have fought it for months in federal court. U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado caused a kerfuffle at a congressional field hearing in late April when he suggested the fence be built north of Brownsville.

Yet the government has not blinked.

In the last three weeks, government lawyers have filed 52 condemnation lawsuits against Cameron County landowners to make way for the fence.

And late Friday, the Army Corps of Engineers requested proposals to build three fence segments totaling about seven miles on the western side of the county.

One of those would graze an acre of land owned by Eloisa Tamez, the project’s most vociferous and litigious South Texas opponent.

“It’s all scare tactics, it’s all pressure,” Tamez said Monday after hearing of the bid requests. Tamez fought the government when it sought temporary access to the land, which dates to a Spanish land grant to her ancestors, and countersued.

Government consultants finally surveyed the plant life on her property in April and said they would return for a land survey. But they have not been back, she said.

“They said they were skipping it because they were running out of time,” Tamez said. She said she refused a government offer of $13,000 for a strip of her land running along the levee.

The Department of Homeland Security is trying to meet a demand from Congress to have 670 miles of pedestrian and vehicle fencing in place by the end of the year.

The department is also facing several lawsuits by local officials and business owners trying to stop the construction, including the Texas Border Coalition. The latest such suit was filed Monday by the city of El Paso, a local Indian tribe, two far West Texas water improvement districts and several environmental groups.

Maps of the final fence alignments have not been released since Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff waived more than 30 federal laws April 1 to ensure the fence moved ahead unimpeded.

But based on draft maps released late last year, the three segments bid out in Cameron County include:

–A 2.3-mile fence south of La Feria, beginning at the western edge of the county and passing through the state’s La Paloma Wildlife Management Area and ending just north of part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge;

–A 1.9-mile segment that will run along the northern edge of a portion of another National Wildlife Refuge annex west of El Calaboz;

–And a three-mile piece east of El Calaboz that will run north of a third National Wildlife Refuge area.

So far, five preapproved government contractors have expressed interest in the bid request. They include the Army’s biggest contractor, Houston-based Kellogg, Brown & Root Services Inc., as well as Houston’s Weston Solutions Inc., Fort Worth-based Kiewit Texas Construction, Business World Company of San Antonio and Environmental Chemical Solutions of Burlingame, Calif.

A representative of Business World Company said the request, which was only available to preapproved contractors, did not include a value range on the contract.

Carlos Cascos, Cameron County’s chief executive, said he still hopes a compromise will be reached with the government before construction begins.

Cascos wants to broker a deal similar to one in neighboring Hidalgo County, which convinced Homeland Security to combine its border wall with critical levy improvements rather than acquiring more land for fencing. Major differences are that Hidalgo had a plan months ago and millions in upfront money to contribute.

Cameron County awarded a contract last month to an engineering consultant to develop a plan it can take to Chertoff.

“If we don’t get something into them fairly soon they’re going to build this,” Cascos said. “We’ve got to give them a viable alternative.”

]]> http://www.bordervoter.com/2008/06/09/from-businessweek/feed/ http://www.bordervoter.com/2008/03/12/montana-governor-schweitzer-tells-homeland-security-to-go-to-hell/ http://www.bordervoter.com/2008/03/12/montana-governor-schweitzer-tells-homeland-security-to-go-to-hell/#comments Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:21:16 +0000 jesse Border Voter http://www.bordervoter.com/2008/03/12/montana-governor-schweitzer-tells-homeland-security-to-go-to-hell/ Federal law requires states to issue tamper-proof (no such thing) identification cards to people, living within their states. Many states have balked but none have come out and said it as ‘nicely’ as Gov. Brian Schweitzer, of Montana. DHS has told them that if they don’t file an extension, by the end of the month, that the residents won’t be able to use their drivers licenses to board airplanes, starting in May.

Why?

Because it tells a true story. It’s not Hollywood fiction with
a happy ending. “Borders” is a raw firsthand video record of
one man’s journey to our borders and the unspeakable horrors
that he found.

Louis, leadership doesn’t want you to know
what’s happening, but I want you to know, by experiencing
this movie for yourself. Click here to learn more:
Movie Border

++ “Get off the sofa and do something about it!”

Those were the words that started the life-changing journey for
Southern California resident Chris Burgard. Tired of hearing his
complaints about the immigration crisis, Chris’s wife challenged
him to take action.

He did, and the result of his year-long journey is “Border”.

Here you’ll discover the true level of lawlessness at our borders–
the rape trees, and the death. You’ll experience the frustration
being felt by ranchers, farmers and citizens who are desperately
trying to hang on to their land being overrun by vicious gangs
and drug smugglers.

And most shocking of all, you’ll witness drug mules being escorted
across the border into the U.S. by Mexican military!

Louis, our leaders don’t want you to know how serious this
situation has become. They prefer we all remain ignorant to the
real truth–the truth that Chris Burgard captured on film–the
truth that I guarantee will make your blood boil!

It’s true.

But have you ever seen a headline that read: MEXICAN SOLDIERS INVADE UNITED STATES?

Neither have I. When it comes to securing our borders, the left-wing press — and our elected officials in Washington — sees no evil, hears no evil, and speaks no evil.

Recently, however, Judicial Watch obtained a government report that documents not one, not two, but HUNDREDS OF INCURSIONS BY ARMED MEXICAN SOLDIERS AND MEXICAN POLICE.

Here are some excerpts from the report, describing specific incidents:

“As the boat proceeded to go down river towards the scene, the [U.S. Border Patrol] Agent on board advised via radio that several Mexican soldiers were pointing their rifles in his direction. The Agent decided for his safety and the safety of the crew to turn back, but advised that the soldiers were still aiming at them.”

Invaders aimed their guns AT AMERICAN BORDER PATROL AGENTS ON AMERICAN SOIL — knowing that U.S. agents aren’t allowed to pursue them. At other times, they actually fired on Americans.

“[Troopers] attempted to apprehend three vehicles believed to be smuggling contraband on I-10 . As the vehicles approached the border, [troopers] stated that a Mexican Military Humvee armed with a .50 caliber weapon and several soldiers were seen assisting smugglers return to Mexico. Officers then noticed several armed subjects dressed in fatigue type clothing unload the contraband into the Humvee.”

Unfortunately, Mexico seems to be run by corrupt politicians, a rogue army, and dirty cops. It’s a cauldron of poverty, lawlessness, and corruption.

“This boat, which appeared to be a Mexican Military boat, was providing security and escort for the two others that were later found to be transporting 2,716.53 pounds of Marijuana.”

Where is the outrage? No one in charge seems to care that dope dealers are now bringing their own armies with them — and our National Guardsmen on the border AREN’T EVEN ALLOWED TO HAVE WEAPONS.

Who among the Republicans are providing a solution to the unlimited illegal immigration that is allowed by the U.S. Constitution? Congressman Ron Paul, there are two mechanisms that allow for participation of American citizens, one is known as the Justices of the Peace, this goes back to the King of England when the Lords were looting and pillaging the commoners. The other would be the re-institution of the well-regulated militia through the several states, not the National guard, which is a professional police force, but a voluntary militia which is the duty of a free man to defend the homeland.

What you abdicate the role of self defense to a professional police force, you are eventually setting that police force up to be a police state that will turn on it’s own citizenry. Are we understanding that yet? We now have cops tasering Americans in shopping malls for taking photos.

  Government’s role in America was altered from one of protecting the liberty and property of the inhabitant’s to one of protecting all the people from the trials and tribulations of life. Comfort and safety became the purpose of government rather than the protection of the free-will of the virile and the strong. The strong free and the good were forced to subsize the weak and the cowards of society. No child left behind is the sum-total of a society striving for sameness and mediocrity. Libertarianism has become a four-letter word where Abortion now is a choice rather than a tragedy. Carrying a gun is licensed and regulated to the point that a right to bear arms has become a priviledge to house an unloaded weapon in a locked safe.

   The change in the philosophy of the willful self-reliant man to the effeminate peace-loving tofu chewing metro-sexual is the reason that Mexicans have overrun the Southwest without a shot being fired. We are now under a state of occupation by Mexican gangs,

Declaring a Nation of Aztlan is High Treason and an overt ‘Act of War’. It is illegal invasion and hostile occupation of American land where they install their drug culture gangland warfare anarchy. Fully understand that their political and militaristic objective is the total destruction of the White Anglo Saxon Protestant lifestyle; ironically, the very people and culture that supports them. When White Anglo Saxon Protestants move away from their creeping destruction (White Flight), the ‘alien communities’ quickly deteriorate into the socio-economic wastelands just like what they fled from in Mexico. After destroying that American community” they must continue expanding further into the White Anglo Saxon Christian Society to survive while leaving ruined communities in their wake.

  Illegal immigration is mostly atributed to the abridgement and adulteration of the second amendment. “A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free
State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be
infringed.” The Militia is We the People; the defense of the Republic within the Constitution limits lies not with a professional police force, National Guard or State Police but rather the common people, all the people.

Like in Switzerland, every man is required to own a gun, read that again required to own a gun, like the early American Republic. The defense of the Republic and the patroling of the borders is the sole responsibilty of a well-regulated Milita by the People. The People are supposed to be aware of the state of the nation, guarding the Republic against enemies foreign and domestic. The modern day attempt for true border patrol is through a group called the minuteman. The minuteman project is composed everyday Americans patroling our borders from invasion. A real simple solution to illegal immigration, place a $5000 bounty on every head of every illegal immigrant. Re-institute the justices of the peace, a constitutional solution to law-enforcement.

Over at ALIPAC (Americans For Legal Immigration) they note that “Ninety percent of our supporters are behind either Romney, Thompson, Paul, or Hunter for President because they appear truly opposed to Amnesty for illegal aliens,” They also note that “With illegal immigration as a top issue in the 2008 campaigns” that there is a “possibility of a pro-Amnesty candidate such as John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, or Mike Huckabee winning the GOP primary, forcing American voters to choose between two pro-Amnesty candidates,” I noted a positive difference between the two statements which is that Ron Paul was not included as a “Pro-Amnesty” candidate. This is a fair assessment in my mind, he’s said it numerous times in his speeches, that stance is matched by his voting records, and it’s also listed as his policy on his website. Here is the quote: “No amnesty. Estimates suggest that 10 to 20 million people are in our country illegally. That’s a lot of people to reward for breaking our laws.”

Lou Dobb’s would further split the vote among republicans making the general election a sure win for the Democrats which is a loss for this country. If Tancredo were still in the race I’d say rally behind him, however sine he dropped out, why not rally support behind a candidate with a strong stance on illegal immigration, one that opposes amnesty (like Lou Dobbs), and has lots of experience in office. In the end it’s up to the people, and hopefully they make the smart choice.

Besides NO AMNESTY is Lou Dobbs conservative? Well in his 60 minutes interview it was revealed that he is pro-choice, pro-government regulation (except guns), and holds a generally supportive stance on gay-marriage. His credentials are working for CNN, Space.com, and being on the Radio. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t make his point of view invalid, but he has no prior political office experience, so I question the likelihood of his success.

The report by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general found that the effectiveness of teams assigned to find the fugitives was hampered by “insufficient detention capacity, limitations of an immigration database and inadequate working space.”

Even though more than $204 million was allocated for 52 fugitive operations teams since 2003, a backlog of 623,292 cases existed as of August 2006, the report said.

The number of illegal immigrants in the United States has been estimated at between 11.5 million and 12 million. About 5.4 percent of them are believed to be “fugitive aliens,” those who have not obeyed orders to leave the country.

The inspector general found there is too little bed space available to detain such fugitives, and agents are hampered by an inaccurate database. Another factor that limits the teams’ effectiveness is insufficient staffing, the report said.

There is unity among Americans on one point:

Our Borders are broken. There are two answers:

1. Fix it.

2. Fuhgetabout it.

One answer attacks the problem.

The other embraces it. Or pretends it doesn’t matter.

On one side is near-unanimous American public opinion;

on the other is a small, elite cabal of liberal media, political power seekers, La Raza ‘Reconquistadores’, gooey gum-drop, non-sensical ‘moralist preeners’, and craven migration profiteers.

The losers are the many who watch their personal and national security, dignity of labor and common culture dissipate daily before their very eyes. Also losers are those cruelly enticed souls who die in the merciless desert of thirst and the grit of cynical neglect as they seek ‘jobs no one else would do”… Perhaps the saddest category is the last.

The newspaper’s banner headline read: “Fox pledges more Border control”.

It might as well have read, “B’rer Fox pledges closer care of the chickens.”

No Foxes are necessary to fix our Border, thank you, Senor Fox. You and your endemically corrupt government and Federales are acting more like a problem than a solution.

Neither helpful are Dependency Class Democrats (DCD’s) nor Peon Labor Republicans (PLR’s). DCDs and PLRs have together more in common with the Rabi Blanco “White Tailed Pheasant’ elite ruling Familias below the Border than they do with middle class Notre Americanos above it.

DCDs intentionally build ever larger and culturally disconnected classes of semi-citizens to acquire and retain political power; the PLR’s toast migrant-picked grape wine in crystal flutes to underclass labor who ‘do the jobs no one else will do’. Disingenuous language of multicultural diversity and mock solidarity helps sooth the conscience of greed and neglect, political and economic exploitation at the expense of both the migrant and the America we have known which changes daily before our eyes.

Together, Republi-Dems or DemoReps elites share the same clubs, parties and friends, whilst their middle class countrymen oppose in record numbers the policies their cynical manipulations impose for power and profit. America is as a result becoming a classed society in quick-time, fast losing its traditional culture of middle-class homogeneity. We quite simply cannot assimilate at the rate we have acquired our millions, -which now exceed the combined populations of seven states.

Have you not noticed? Go to any street corner or construction site or Wal-Mart in America - anywhere in America, rural or urban - and see the stratifications of the South:

schools, prisons, healthcare, language … horrific gang violence and drug trade, - we are no longer – and no longer seem to aspire - to the ‘Unum’ in our ‘e pluribus’.

There is an ugly, fundamental coarseness and cultural shift taking place before our very eyes and within our hardening hearts, even as we hire that low cost nanny or cut-rate auto repairman. We want a Dependent Class beneath us – or we want a cheap gardener, painter, or road crew. To the degree we tolerate such effusive exploitation, we participate in it.

Either we are a Nation of Laws – or we are not. We must decide. Or decision will be taken from us. We will not be mau-maued by illegal ‘guests’ in our streets. We will not be intimidated into betraying the essence of America for a cheaper glass of tomato juice. We will preserve America’s essence and welcome those who seek to become One with us – not those who drain our generosity and good will, and demand special recognition for flaunting our laws.

Cohesiveness is essential element of strength. Strength is a necessity to a coherent National Will. The depth and quality of National Will determines success or failure of policy – and of nations. It is time to revisit not only Border Policy and the question of massed illegals among us, but to measure the totality of our immigration construct, lock, stock and barrel. Any outcome must be judged against the criterion: Does the proposed policy serve to build a cohesive America, a stronger America, an America consistent and true to its principles, its past and its promise. Does it build Americans?

Let there be no mistake: many of the millions of migrants bring good qualities to America. Qualities we have too often lost within ourselves. New blood is healthy, and vitalizing – it renews the body as well as the spirit. Too much new blood bursts the veins. Migrants are in many respects the best resources of what their exporting countries have to offer - and the least they can afford to lose.

Industrious, aspiring, entrepreneurial, family focused, strongly religious – they are precisely what their exporting countries would need to build their own prosperity, if their native DCDs and PLRs would seek broad based prosperity rather than privilege, greed and power. That is why orderly immigration policies are so important. That, and the little matter of an Open Border during a War on Terror.

The lack of seriousness of the administration in fighting the Terror War at the Border (though we send hundreds of thousands of our best youth and billions of tax dollars to foreign lands …) when its exigencies collide with open borders interests is clearly illustrated at Ft Huachuca. This huge 155 square mile US Army base lies on the border in Arizona. The fort – from which soldiers chased banditos and revolutionaries into Mexico in the early 1900’s, now is a major drug and human migrant route to heartland America. Groups of 75-80 invaders traipse freely through Base Officer Housing, drink from home garden hoses and look for food.*

A recent Congressional Delegation discovered that, although knowing of the problem at the highest level of command, this important military base has devoted but FOUR junior enlisted troops to protect the entire installation. No officers. Further, these soldiers primary duty is environmental protection, - not perimeter security or safety for the soldier’s families and highly sensitive government property.

With WMD lose in the world and Iranians and prayers rugs found along the travel routes, who can explain such gross negligence in terms other than conscious policy and intentionally unregulated routes to middle America? We might as well pass out bus tickets to Detroit in Norgales. ‘Secure the Ports’ hysteria? – Well, we have a 2000 mile long “Port” that is a wide-open door by design, with millions of violations each year against the express will of American opinion, security, and interests…

At the same time, it is neither accurate, fair nor in good faith to call ‘Xenophobic’ or otherwise malign those Americans who counsel restraint and caution, border order and security, in a time of Terror-war. Indeed, there is far more evident racism and cultural aggressiveness in highly organized ‘spontaneous’ school strikes, chants of “Brown Power”, “Mexico!”, “The Race!” and waving foreign flags than in anything we have heard from citizens who endure high crime rates, gang violence, prison, court and insurance costs, and cultural predation, who pay huge taxes and reduced quality of life to sustain generous illegal alien education, health care, social services. There are countless ways we pay for the ‘labor no one will do.’

Yet, if Latinos will do ‘work undone’ for $5 and hour, will not other billions in this seething, aspiring world do it for $5 a week? Surely we can find urgent ‘work undone’ worth $5 a week … say, ironing underwear or plucking past-peak azalea blossoms from public gardens with tweezers …”Just can’t find an American who will do it …!”

Where is the end? And how much cultural sovereignty do we sell for another azalea plucker?

America is – by a long shot – the most desired residence on earth for billions of aspiring economic refugees. Billions. But at what point do we cease to be America? At what point do we lose the cultural cohesiveness, Toquevillian democracy in America, the economic and political freedom which is our distinctive identity? When do we say, “enough for now - We need to catch our breath — some time to digest and assimilate the 15 million-person portion we have just consumed.”

I think the time is now. Maybe it was yesterday, or last year … but every night and day thousands more stream across undefended and unsupervised borders to a non-policy of collusion and deception. Fewer than one percent of our migrant guests have ever seen a dentist; many carry disease, virtually none have rudimentary inoculations, and much of the meager wages they earn is returned, US-tax free, to their countries of origin. America changes before our very eyes – and there are millions more to come …

Order on the Border is long over due. A comprehensive solution is needed. True. But Seal the Border FIRST. Then consider, in good faith and full examination of need, what to do with the 15 million nameless, low wage line-cutters, aspirers, good folk – and perhaps terrorists - who are here.

The following are a few modest – but non-negotiable Terms of Principle which must be a part of any final Border Order. There may be more, some may be modified, but the Principles are sound, solid, and offered in good faith. When implemented, the discussion can properly turn to accommodation of those who entered illegally and are doing “jobs no one else will do (at the price they do it).”

Ten Essential Points of Order on the Border:

Education – particularly in needed fields - and tested fluency in English or needed skills are to be rewarded with additional quotas. A ‘substantial skills’ registration process and back taxes must be a part of Normalization;

Security to our homeland, fairness to those who respect America’s law and immigrate to America to become ‘American’ - America must decide:

Will we fix it – or just fuhgetabout it.

* The author was a member of that House Delegation. He is also a retired Marine Corps officer who served with Joint Task Force Six, Counterdrug, along the two-thousand mile Border with Mexico. For ten days in May, 2005, delegates toured ports of entry, Border Patrol and local law enforcement, parks and ranchlands, met with common citizens, Minutemen and illegal entrants alike, visited health and responder infrastructure and Federal/State/Military authorities in Arizona and Mexico.

Their full report is available on Congressman Charlie Norwood’s web site.