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Mayor seeks to deny DHS access to city land
Comments 0 | Recommend 0Today may be April Fool's Day, but Brownsville Mayor Pat M. Ahumada Jr. won't be joking when he asks city commissioners to revoke access to city land from the federal government.
Ahumada seeks to reaffirm opposition to a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and to join the Texas Border Coalition in an anticipated lawsuit against the government.
"We should make the federal government earn every inch to get on our land and not compromise," Ahumada said Monday.
The commission will address the item during its regular meeting today, starting at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 1001 E. Elizabeth St.
Commissioners in October 2007 didn't back Ahumada's request to deny the government access. At that time, Commissioner Ricardo Longoria said he didn't want to hamper the city's funding relationship with the federal agency. Longoria could not be reached to comment Monday.
Ahumada said he has been in touch with a coalition of mayors along the border discussing the issue. Attorney Peter Schey, president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles, Calif., is willing to take the coalition's case pro bono. Ahumada said that the coalition would pick up Schey's personal expenses.
The city of Brownsville, through City Manager Charlie Cabler, gave Homeland Security access to the land several months ago. While Ahumada feels that the permit should be withdrawn to strengthen the coalition's pending case, City Attorney Jim Goza said in January that granting access didn't compromise the city's ability to mount a legal fight in any way.
Cabler emphasized at that time that the permit was to survey only and not to construct the fence.
Ahumada's view is that allowing by allowing the government access to the land it "looks like we are negotiating from a position of weakness and not strength. This position should be the last position, not the conceding position to take."
He said the city should join the coalition in a class-action lawsuit because "we are stronger in unity than by ourselves.
"I can only bring it to the commission and the community's attention and let the citizens be the judge," the mayor said.
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