Texas border cities, counties joining lawsuit opposing border fence

McALLEN - Cities and counties along the Texas-Mexico border will join a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security aimed at halting construction of the border fence, Texas Border Coalition Chairman Chad Foster announced Tuesday.

"We've not many options," said Foster, the mayor of Eagle Pass. "We've been meeting with DHS since 2006, and nothing's come of it. ... What are they going to do, build a fence?"

Five Rio Grande Valley residents filed the original lawsuit in February in U.S. District Court in Brownsville, in response to lawsuits the U.S. Department of Justice brought earlier this year seeking access to land where the border fence is planned.

Of the 75 suits the feds filed along the U.S.-Mexico border, more than 50 were against property owners in Texas, predominantly in the Rio Grande Valley.

The addition of the Texas Border Coalition as a plaintiff would seem to add considerable weight to the case against DHS.

The coalition's joining in the lawsuit comes at a time when the fence is getting greater publicity in the national media - a development the group's officials hope could slow construction of the border barrier.

"They may drill some holes in the ground, but I think we still have about an even chance of delaying construction until the next administration," consultant William Moore said Tuesday at a coalition meeting in McAllen.

Homeland Security does not comment on pending litigation, department spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said.

Local officials from El Paso to Brownsville have been vocal opponents of the fence since Congress first ordered it in 2006. They have lobbied heavily, arguing the fence would mean loss of land, adverse environmental effects and damage to the cultural and economic ties with Mexico.

Hidalgo County has worked out a deal for a combined levee-border wall that satisfies Homeland Security's mandate while partially addressing needed repairs to the county's deteriorated levee system.

Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas was among those who voted for the Texas Border Coalition to join the lawsuit.

"It shouldn't affect our project at all," he said of the levee-wall initiative. "It's a separate issue with the private landowners."

The attorney now representing the coalition, Peter Schey, president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles, has filed a motion seeking class-action status for the lawsuit, which would expand it to all affected property owners along the U.S.-Mexico border.

"(The suit) seeks uniformity in treatment for all property owners. That's not happening right now," he said. "How well they fair really depends on their resources. ... It's a checkerboard situation right now - 80 percent of the landowners don't have lawyers."

Within the lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that lands owned by well connected property owners have been ignored by Homeland Security, including a Cameron County property owned by Dallas billionaire Ray L. Hunt. Hunt is chairman and chief executive officer of Hunt Realty Investments Inc., which owns Hunt Valley Development, according to public records on file with the Texas Secretary of State. Hunt Valley developed Sharyland Plantation in Mission and McAllen.

No date has been set for U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen's ruling on the motion seeking class-action status.

Earlier this month Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced he would waive more than 30 federal laws to expedite the construction of the fence. Since then, 14 members of the U.S. House have called on the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the 2005 law that gave him authority to do so.

Homeland Security plans call for 370 miles of fence and 300 miles of vehicle barriers to be built along the U.S. border with Mexico by the end of 2008. As of March 17, construction was complete on 309 miles of fencing and barriers, mostly in New Mexico, Arizona and California, department spokeswoman Kudwa said.

"We're still confident we'll have it finished by the end of the year," she said.
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James Osborne covers McAllen and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4428.