UTB-TSC, DHS hearing under way

Three months after the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College reached an agreement over the federal government's right to access campus property, both parties are back in court.

UTB-TSC alleges that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not make an adequate attempt to consider alternatives to a physical border fence, which would cut off 180 acres of the university's 465-acre campus.

According to a motion filed by UTB-TSC on June 19, DHS's action is tantamount to violating March's court order, signed by District Judge Andrew S. Hanen.

The case under way in Hanen's court.

The federal government responded with a motion on June 25, claiming that condemnation of UTB-TSC's land cannot be stopped, even if DHS did violate the court order. The motion goes on to claim that the department did follow the order by consulting in good faith with university officials.

"The request for an injunction should be denied," the motion states.

UTB-TSC has asked that its "unique status as an institution of higher learning" be considered in the proceedings. In its motion, university officials cite several letters from DHS and U.S. Border Patrol, including one from Ronald Vitiello, the Rio Grande Valley sector's Border Patrol chief, who called the assessment of alternatives to a fence a "waste of time."

"Instead of working under these dictates of the order, they chose to move forward with their original plan to construct the fence in the exact same location and manner as previously announced, and to move to seize our land for a token payment," UTB-TSC President Dr. Juliet V. García wrote in a press release on June 27.