White House opposes mandated local input on border fence

After months of debate, federal authorities and Rio Grande Valley leaders may have finally found something about a proposed border fence that they can agree on:

The time for talking is over.

On Tuesday, President Bush threatened to veto a U.S. House homeland security bill that would tie money for fence construction to community input, describing mandated meetings as an unnecessary roadblock to secure the nation’s border.

And while local leaders still disagree with the plan to construct 370 miles of physical fencing along the nation’s frontier, several local mayors said Wednesday that they support the reasoning behind the veto threat.

At this point, further discussion seems pointless, said Mission Mayor Beto Salinas, who recently described himself as “a Democrat locally and a Republican statewide.”

“These meetings are a waste of time,” he said, referring to a series of conversations between local leaders and homeland security officials over the past two months.

“Nothing comes out of them,” he said.

The $37.4 billion spending bill allocates $1 billion to Customs and Border Protection for fencing and technology along the border. But the budget requires the agency to seek support from local communities before that money is spent.

The Bush administration, however, rejected such meetings in a statement it released Tuesday.

Homeland security officials have already made “extensive outreach and coordination” efforts with border leaders, the document said.

Since May, outraged Valley leaders have met several times with federal authorities like U.S. Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

But the summits have offered little hope that the Bush administration will even consider abandoning fencing plans, Salinas said.

“I think they’re going to build a wall anyway,” he said. “They’re just trying to soften us up.”

Acting on that indignation from home, Texas’ Republican U.S. Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn pushed through an amendment to an immigration reform bill last month that would have mandated future meetings between local and federal leaders. But that measure seemed to fizzle in the Senate last week, along with its parent bill.

Even if further meetings become a part of federal law, McAllen Mayor Richard Cortez said Wednesday he has given up talking with homeland security officials.

“The president thinks the Border Patrol knows better than us,” he said.

“But this is the same Border Patrol that has been working the areas between the ports of entry for years, and they haven’t stopped the (illegal immigration) problem.”

Efforts to block the construction project never received serious attention, Salinas said.

“I’m not going to have anything to do with a fence,” he said.

“If they want to build it, they can do it themselves, but they’re not going to get any help from me.”

Still, Hidalgo County Republican Chairman Hollis Rutledge says there are some issues worth meeting about, such as how the fence will impact access to water, impact the environment and affect cross-border commerce.

But Valley leaders seem set on directing their efforts elsewhere.

Cortez hopes a nationwide public relations campaign can sway voter opinion.

“We cannot stand there and just give up,” Cortez said.

“I think the American people will come to the same conclusion we have, once a proper public debate has occurred.”

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Jeremy Roebuck covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437. For this and more local stories, visit www.themonitor.com.