Cascos: Border wall more like a fence

BROWNSVILLE - After getting his first glimpse of what the border fence will look like in Cameron County, County Judge Carlos Cascos said it was bad, but not as bad as he feared.

"I was expecting a lot worse," Cascos said Saturday.

"Everybody has been calling it a border wall. Well, it doesn't look like a wall; it looks like a fence."

Bollard fences and picket fences will be used in some areas. A "floating fence" is planned for other areas, according to information supplied to the county last week by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Bollards are like the concrete pillars seen in front of retail stores, such as a Wal-Mart. However, in this case, they aren't as short or that far apart.

The drawings show the pillars spaced about 2 to 3 inches apart and rising to heights that could range from 10 feet to 17 or 18 feet, Cascos said.

The picket fences are metal instead of wood and are also tall, he said.

Cascos described floating fences as temporary, or removable fences.

"It's not like floating in the water. I think it's a temporary fence," he said.

Although county officials have long known about plans for the border fence, they had no idea what it was going to look like, Cascos said.

He assumed it would be similar to the "China wall," or would "look more like a prisoner of war camp" type of fence, he said.

But he added, "It's still bad. A fence is a fence and I don't support the concept of any kind of fence or barrier."

Fencing in Cameron County will be constructed at Nemo Road and Weaver's Mountain near Harlingen, West and East Los Indios, La Paloma, Ho chi Minh-Estero near Harlingen, the Riverbend Resort Water Tower and the Brownsville Public Utilities Board fence line.

Also included is the extension of Palm Boulevard to the Fort Brown golf course, the Fort Brown golf course to the Veterans International Bridge port of entry and Veterans International Bridge to Sea Shell Inn.

Last month, dump trucks could be seen traveling to and from the river levee near Riverbend Resort, where 1.6 miles of the fencing is being constructed.

Although the county opposes the fence, there is little hope that anyone will be able to stop construction, Cascos said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Lloyd Easterling said that as of Friday, the fence was still being worked on and that the DHS had not received any word from Congress to halt construction.

Meanwhile, DHS has offered a compromise to the City of Brownsville that would erect a removable border fence on city property in the downtown area.

For more than a year the city has been in negotiations with the DHS to allow the city to remove a portion of the fence, once construction begins on the proposed East Loop and River Levee city projects, officials said.

Brownsville city commissioners are set to vote on whether to accept the proposal for a removable fence at a meeting Thursday.

"We are the only the community all along the entire border that will have the opportunity to actually remove this fence that is mandated by Congress. I think that is huge," City Commissioner Anthony Troiani.