Hidalgo border fence suits head to court

McALLEN - More than 25 Hidalgo and Starr county landowners are set to appear before a judge today in an attempt to block border fence surveys on their property.

The hearing could jumpstart the long-stalled fence construction project effectively put on hold in the Rio Grande Valley after the federal government sued property owners earlier this year.

Among the defendants are the Hidalgo Economic Development Corp., the Rio Grande City school district and the family of prominent McAllen attorney Roberto Yzaguirre.

"My client's land goes back in their family for generations," said Eric Jarvis, an attorney representing Yzaguirre's family. "He doesn't want to agree to anything."

Representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Border Patrol began contacting landowners last spring seeking access to survey their land and test its suitability for stretches of fencing.

But dozens of them resisted, refusing access to surveyors as an act of protest against the plan. U.S. attorneys then filed suit against them, asking a judge to force immediate access.

Many of those suits have languished in federal court since U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen denied the immediate access requested by the government.

On March 7, Hanen ruled that the government was entitled to access a Cameron County landowner's property but ordered further negotiations between the parties to settle on prices for access and potential land seizure.

"There is contradictory and insufficient evidence before this court as to whether there has been bona fide efforts to negotiate" with landowners, Hanen's 32-page opinion states.

Since the remaining Valley lawsuits involve many of the same legal issues, all have been assigned to Hanen. He is scheduled to make a special trip from Brownsville to the federal courthouse in McAllen this afternoon to hear the remaining cases.

Current plans call for 370 miles of border fence and 300 miles of vehicle barriers along the southern U.S. border by the end of this year.

But earlier this month, representatives from the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that "keeping on schedule will be challenging because of ... difficulties in acquiring rights to border lands."