Border control to prevent... what, exactly?

The cover story of last weeks' Houston Press focused on the environmental impact of a proposed border fence/barricade plan surrounding the Laredo area of the Texas-Mexico border area. The potential impact on the indigenous wildlife as well as the local human population on both sides of the border is great, but a few other interesting tidbits were slipped in the piece as well, like this one:

Local officials also got ahold of an eight-page "request for proposal" from DHS that sets out a plan for border fencing near Laredo, including the statement that "The total value of contract...will not exceed $172 million." Under "proposed corporate structure," it lists Houston-based Kellogg Brown & Root.

Peter continues to pay Paul, it would seem...

And then there's this, concerning the ability of the local officials and population to question the plan and its feasibility (based on the amount and accuracy of the information on the plan for the barricades):

Initially, federal officials debated the authenticity of the map. That seems to have passed, and the proposed fencing has been accepted as more than just some errant agent's doodling.

At the same time, DHS tightened its control over information. The U.S. Border Patrol, which had been commenting on the border fence, was told to shut up.

"We have an order from headquarters. We can't comment on the fence," Camilo Garcia, public affairs officer of the Rio Grande Valley sector of the U.S. Border Patrol, said last week. "They gave us guidelines earlier on what we could talk about, and now they say those don't apply."

Agricultural impacts? What agricultural impacts? I get all my strawberries from California, anyway...

Two issues seem likely to be dominant for the farmers and shippers.

One has to do with water access. Almost all irrigation is done with water out of the Rio Grande. "If we can't get access to that water, then we have a huge problem. Because almost all fruit and vegetable crops are irrigated. Most places in the country, a lot of the irrigation is done with well water. That's not the case here," McClung says.

"I heard one plan from one Border Patrol guy, a low-level guy, well, he said we'll put gates in the fence, we'll open them at 8:30 in the morning for an hour or two. Well, jeez, Louise, all that reflects is a wanton lack of understanding of how agriculture works."

And everyone's favorite Golden Oldie, Eminent Domain:

The other issue is land condemnation. Most of the land in South Texas, even down to the river, is privately owned.

"There is a deep emotional resentment at the notion of land condemnation. Secondly, there's questions about fair value, about how it would be done, and there's many people who simply do not want to part with their land under any circumstances," McClung says.

And then there's just plain common sense, unless the reason that DHS and their masters want the barriers put in isn't consistent with the stated reasons:

By profession, Steve Ahlenius, president and CEO of the McAllen Chamber of Commerce, is a pretty upbeat kind of guy. The fence really bothers him, though, and like a dog with a bone, he can't let it go, even as his wife cautions him not to come across like some kind of radical.

"We keep hearing DHS talk about possible terrorists' attacks coming from the southern border, and I finally went back and said, ‘Okay, I'm going to look [at] historically since 1999 what's been the things that happened in the United States. Did we have someone coming in from the southern border and planning a terrorist attack?'"

What his research shows, he says, is that since 1999, all known terrorist activity has involved U.S. citizens, naturalized citizens or citizens who are here on visas or alien residents — or who have come in from Canada.

Reflecting on the burgeoning Muslim population in Canada, Ahlenius thinks the greater threat for terrorist attacks on the United States is going to come from the northern border.

A great film came out last year that highlights the impact of an international border drawn haphazardly in the middle of a region that shares many characteristics, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. From the Director's statement:

...a study of the emotional, psychological, spiritual, and social implications of having an international border running through the middle of a culture.

-Tommy Lee Jones

The impacts of such a barrier, which most people interviewed in this article are resigned to see happen, go far beyond all the impacts listed here and in the article. It will make the commerce and transit of everything and everyone that crosses the border both ways right now more difficult, but it will not reduce the need and desire of that transit and commerce to continue. The only thing that will increase is the number of injuries and deaths resulting from attempts to circumvent the barrier and the economic impact of the compromise of the aforementioned commerce across the border.