| | |  Americas & Beyond | July 2008 
Border Fence Opposition Fierce in South Texas
 Angela Kocherga - WorldNow
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Brownsville, Texas - From the moment it was proposed, the fence being built between the U.S. and Mexico has created a backlash from some.
Part of the reason for the outrage in Texas is that much of the land proposed is on private property. That could put some South Texas homeowners on the wrong side of the fence.
Critics call it a "wall" and are quick to list the many reasons they don't want it built.
"My perspective is the environment as much as anything, but it's also going to be an eyesore. It's going to ruin our relationship with Mexico," said Sue Sill of the La Cruz Habitat Protection Project.
Some residents even doubt the fence is really about border security. "It's not about Osama bin Laden. It's about Lupe and Carlos. Make no mistake," John Neck, a fence opponent, said.
Nowhere is the fence opposition stronger than the Rio Grande Valley. "It's going to affect our economy. And it's going to affect our lives," said Cristian Sanchez, a UT Pan American student.
"This is where we live here, right here. And this green here is the fence," Sanchez said.
Pamela Taylor's home is just a block and a half from the border. "It's the stupidity of our government at this time putting the fence up there and not asking what it's doing," Taylor said.
The plan calls for building the fence away from the banks of the Rio Grande, a floodplain. In some cases that distance is a mile. The Taylor family and others will be caught in the buffer zone between the border and the barrier.
"People are just saying we're on the Mexican side. We're going to be Mexicans from now on. So we had these buttons printed and we give them to everybody," Taylor said.
It's not that these border residents don't care about protecting the country; they just don't believe the federal government's fence will work.
"This is where they failed. They just sat in Washington. They looked at a map and said, 'hey, this would be a real good idea'," Taylor said.
In Texas, much of the borderland along the Rio Grande belongs to private property owners. For some families that ownership dates back centuries to Spanish land grants. Now, these U.S. citizens say the federal government is trampling on their rights and ignoring the concerns of communities up and down the river.
Taylor's husband was Texan with deep roots along the Rio Grande. She was a war bride from Britain who made the border her home in 1946 and quickly became a proud U.S. citizen.
"We are Texans. I'm a Texan. I'm a very firm American citizen. I believe in that. I fly my flag out there," she said.
It now flies over borderland at the center of controversy, land that will soon be surrounded by a fence. |
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