Pat Dollard | Young Americans

The El Paso County Attorney ‘fumed’: “The Fence is a political initiative meant to satisfy conservatives in Congress who have played to fears about all immigrants being terrorists, criminals, and living off the dole.”

What the hell kind of county are they running down there in El Paso?

Just west of El Paso, near where Spanish conquistador Juan de Onate crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in 1598, construction crews have completed a steel fence authorities say is a new model for border security.

The five-meter (18-foot) tall fence has a mesh woven so tightly that feet and fingers cannot grab hold, but it still allows people to see through. Steel pylons are set close enough to stop a truck from bursting through, and two meters of reinforced concrete underground deters any tunneling.

The structure is designed to push would-be illegal immigrants and drug smugglers out into the desert where they are more easily caught, said Border Patrol Agent Martin Hernandez.

“Will it completely stop them from coming across? Of course not,” Hernandez said. “Rest assured, there will eventually be holes in parts of the wall made by people trying to get in. But it buys us valuable time.”

The US Department of Homeland Security is racing to meet a December 31 deadline to raise 670 miles of steel fences and vehicle barriers along the 3,200 kilometer (2,000 mile) long southern border. About half has been completed, including this six kilometer (four mile) segment at New Mexico’s Santa Teresa Port of Entry.

But DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff faces a flurry of lawsuits by environmentalists and border communities that could stop construction cold.

To meet his deadline, Chertoff is using sweeping authority Congress granted in 2005 to waive 36 federal laws protecting water, air quality, endangered animals, and native American sites.

“The Great Wall of China did not stop the Mongols, and the Berlin Wall didn’t stop people escaping to freedom — why do they think this will be any different?” asked El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez, the point man in one of the lawsuits.

The fence “is a political initiative meant to satisfy conservatives in Congress who have played to fears about all immigrants being terrorists, criminals, and living off the dole,” he fumed.

The El Paso lawsuit argues that Chertoff’s authority to waive federal law is unconstitutional. Dozens of groups have joined the suit, including the Tigua Indian tribe, which for centuries has held religious ceremonies on the banks of the Rio Grande, which marks the border between Texas and Mexico.

In El Paso, Chertoff’s waiver overrides local rules on managing land use, air quality, and river water. “We have no idea to what extent we can enforce our own laws,” said Rodriguez.

A separate lawsuit by Texas border mayors argues that Chertoff negotiated land prices in bad faith, failed to properly consult locals, and that landowners with connections to the US president — a former Texas governor — are getting special treatment.

Mexico is the second largest US trading partner after Canada, and border chambers of commerce involved in the lawsuit fear the immigration clampdown will hamper business.

Chertoff denies the charges, saying he is simply trying to complete what Congress ordered him to do. “The consequences of an open border are smuggling of drugs and human beings into this country,” he said in mid-May.

(AP)