Maps show Valley with 70 miles of the border fence

McALLEN — Cameron and Starr counties are set to hold the country’s longest continuous spans of a proposed border fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials said on Monday.

In a detailed set of maps, the department outlined the planned 102-mile barrier, showing it stretching in segments through southern California and much of Texas.

The proposal includes 70 miles of fencing in the Rio Grande Valley and includes a 17-mile section that would trace along most of downtown Brownsville.

In fact, the Valley is slated to hold 70 percent of the nation’s border barrier.

The next location tapped to hold a high concentration of fencing is a portion of southern California, at just 12 miles.

“These maps reflect operational assessments by Border Patrol agents of where fencing is most needed,” said Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Mike Friel.

The latest documents were filed in the Federal Register — where government agencies file public notices of ongoing projects — on Monday, along with notice of an upcoming environmental impact study aimed at assessing potential problems the fence might cause in border communities.

Although Monday’s maps differ little from a previous version leaked to the media in May, they provide the most detailed estimates issued to date of when and where the fence will be built.

For some organizations, such as University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College— which once stood to lose a portion of its campus to the Mexican side of the fence — the new plan was a pleasant surprise.

But for the dozens of landowners who own property along the proposed barrier line, the new maps seemed to confirm their worst fears.

“I knew it all along,” Roma City Alderman Noel Benavides said. “They went through the motions of asking our opinion, but they weren’t ever going to change their plan.”

BUILDING THE FENCE

Under the proposal released Monday, 21 segments of fence would be built between Rio Grande City and the Gulf of Mexico, mostly concentrated around 13 current and proposed ports of entry.

Individual segments might range from approximately one mile to more than 13 miles, but would largely follow the natural barrier of the International Boundary and Water Commission’s levee system, the document states.

The fence also crosses privately-owned rural and urban land and is expected to encroach on portions of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge and several Texas state parks.

“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working with public and private land owners to obtain easements or purchase the construction corridor,” the proposal states. “In some cases, secure gates will be constructed to allow land owners access to their property near the Rio Grande River.”

But the largest continuous stretches — a 7.3 mile segment near the Rio Grande City port of entry, and a 13-mile span and 17-mile span from Los Tomates Bridge to the coast — could block off large portions of the Valley from the river.

Design criteria call for a 16-foot tall barrier that extends 3 to 6 feet below ground and is capable of withstanding vandalism, vehicle crashes and climate change.

The proposal also requires that the fencing have minimal impact on animal movement, not impede water flow and be aesthetically pleasing.

In all, the access roads, cleared vegetation and grading is expected to impact more than 500 acres of land surrounding each segment of the fence.

NOT ON MY LAND

Although he is still no fan of any border fence, Tony Zavaleta, UTB-TSC’s vice president for external affairs, was relieved to learn Monday that the newest proposal appeared to keep his Brownsville campus intact.

Previous versions of the map seemed to banish the university’s International, Technology, Education and Commerce Campus on the Mexican side of the fence.

“We continue not to be happy about any fence anywhere,” Zavaleta said. “But we’re glad that the ITEC campus appears to have been spared.”

Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas, meanwhile, questioned what appeared to be a secession of some border lands to Mexico.

“How much property do you lose when you move the border from the river to a new fence along the international levees?” he said.

U.S. Border Patrol agents continue to meet with land owners and local officials to gain support for the plan, according to CBP officials. But some landowners are already mounting a vocal resistance.

Roma alderman Benavides, who owns a parcel of land in front of the Whataburger restaurant in Roma, reported that Border Patrol agents met with city leaders last week to share the newly released maps.

They said that landowners would need to sign a consent form for engineers to survey their property. As incentive, Benavides said, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would offer $3,000 per land parcel.

CBP and corps officials would not confirm the alderman’s report of the meeting Monday.

“I don’t know that they’re going to get a good response around here,” Benavides said. “I know I won’t let them on my land.”

The property owner’s permission would only be for the land survey and would not stop any actual fence construction, though. The federal government could use its authority of eminent domain at any time.

Once plans are finalized, fence construction could begin as soon as spring 2008 and continue through Dec. 31 of that year, the proposal states.

Until that time, CBP officials will continue to seek input from community members that could change the proposal, said Friel, the bureau spokesman.

“It has been our commitment to reach out to border communities and engage in a dialogue,” he said. “The window for public input is still open.”