Border Patrol: No border fence in Texas until 2008

McALLEN — Seventy miles of border fence will be built by the end of the year, but none of it in Texas, U.S. Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar told local officials on Monday.

“One 34-mile section will be built in Arizona in the Barry M. Goldwater range (a U.S. military artillery range in the southwest corner of that state),” he said.

“Several other chunks will be built in New Mexico, California and in other parts of Arizona. They’re seeing a combination of illegal incursions, and we will address these areas of vulnerability first.”

The rest of the 370 miles of proposed fence, which includes 135 miles in Texas, is still in the design phase but won’t be built until the end of 2008, the nation’s top border patrol official said.

Aguilar’s comments came three weeks after a U.S. Department of Homeland Security map laying out the future sites of the fence was leaked to the media, infuriating local officials up and down the border who said they’d been left out of the loop.

Since that time, Border Patrol and other federal agencies have called the map “preliminary” and participated in a series of public information sessions assuring leaders they will have a say when it comes to construction of the fence.

Aguilar was speaking on Monday during a Washington-based video conference U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, transmitted to his McAllen and Laredo offices, where local city officials and business people, as well as Border Patrol representatives participated.

Aguilar also addressed a recent report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service that estimates a 370-mile fence would cost between $6 billion and $25.9 billion over a 25-year period.

“The numbers we’re working with are a lot less,” Aguilar said. “As we go forward, cost is one of the factors we’re considering.”

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James Osborne covers McAllen and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4428. For this and other local stories visit www.themonitor.com.