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Texas officials sue US over border fence


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Texas mayors and business leaders filed a class-action lawsuit Friday alleging Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff hoodwinked landowners into waiving their property hts for construction of a fence along the Mexican border.

Members of the Texas Border Coalition said Chertoff did not fairly negotiate compensation with landowners for access to their land for six-month surveys to choose fence sites. The coalition of mayors and business and community leaders is seeking an injunction to block work on the fence.

They also want a federal judge to rescind all the agreements with landowners and to order Chertoff to start again. The department has sought and won access from hundreds of landowners to determine where to build the fence and other barriers to illegal border crossings.

The coalition's attorney, Peter Schey, said Chertoff violated a 1996 immigration law that requires fair negotiation with landowners.

The lawsuit also names Robert Janson, director of Asset Management at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as a defendant.

It was filed with U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, a Bush nominee who presided in the criminal case of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff.

"They hoodwinked property owners" into waiving their property rights, Schey said.

"This whole thing has been built on a foundation of lawlessness," he said.

Landowners were visited by officials from Homeland Security, Army Corps of Engineers and Customs and Border Patrol. But the government didn't send anyone to advise the owners' of their property rights, Schey said. Some landowners accepted offers of $100 for access to their land.


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Of course it has been built on lawlessness... this is the Bush regime we're talking about. Tell me why these people are in power again? And this fence is a farce and will do nothing but waste time and money better spent. Just another scheme to not only keep people out, but to keep people in and ruin the environment. Good for Texas for standing up to Nosferatu.
JanforGore

25 responses // Texas officials sue US over border fence

  • Site of the Texas Border Coalition.

    http://www.texasbordercoalition.org


    For me this is not about building fences, but working to mend fences by giving economic opportunity to those along the border on both sides.
    JanforGore
  • Easements on the property for access of a national boarder will override any lawsuit. Easements on my property state the government can run any type of public utility through my property.

    Large quantities of drugs are smuggled across the US/Mexico boarder each year and the Mexican Mafia/Cartels are assassinating top police officers in Mexico city and carrying out war like tactics on the boarder.

    If only to slow down the trafficking of drugs, I say build the fence and give the woefully undermanned law enforcement officials some help.
    Pwdrskir
  • Really? How much drugs? Are there any statistics on that? And do you really think a fence is going to stop that? Here we are as Americans who celebrate the Berlin wall coming down, and the only solution we have to this is a wall? Oh well, it seems par for the course in this country now. Take the easy way out. Repealing NAFTA might actually work a lot better than any fence. And I suppose the ruling of the judge in this case will determine the outcome regarding eminant domain.To say landowners have absolutely no rights at all in this country is surely not Democratic. When the government has the ability to just take anything you own with impunity that is not Democratic.
    JanforGore
  • An easement is a right to use, eminent domain is a right to take. The first 60 feet of any land holding along a US border is an easement belonging to the federal government for the nation’s use.

    The FBI’s congressional testimony on drug trafficking, very ugly stuff.

    http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress05/swecker111705.ht...

    http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress08/kaiser020708.htm

    Pwdrskir
  • Another example of this administration taking away the rights of American citizens, who have every right to their property, or just compensation for their property.
    And I agree with JanforGore: We were the one's who called for the end of the Berlin Wall. Why are we the one's building a wall? America is about destroying barriers, not building them. A wall will not stop illegals and drug smugglers. As with every obstacle, people will find a way to overcome it if they feel the need. There must be better solutions to our problems than building a wall along our borders.
    brycepatingre
  • brycepatingre: Yes, they will either then dig around it or below it or go over it.... how high will it then be extended? And when we start shooting people for going over it... Then what? And that's not even mentioning the environmental devastation this will cause to that area of the country.

    And here we go again with criminalizing everyone who wants to come over and making them all out to be drug dealers. What about those who are families or who have family here who want to come into this country to work and live and be American citizens? Since when does this country now look on all immigrants as outlaws? I surely do not recognize my country anymore. The solution is not fences, it is attacking this problem at its roots... and that root is economics. But again, that is not as easy as just building a wall to block it all out.
    JanforGore
  • Well gee, seems to me if you are using it you have taken it.

    "The coalition's attorney, Peter Schey, said Chertoff violated a 1996 immigration law that requires fair negotiation with landowners"

    And actually, this lawsuit is more about this law being broken. Or does the government also have the right to just swindle people as well?
    JanforGore
  • http://notexasborderwall.com/page4.htm
    Image...
    Environmental impact of the border wall.
    JanforGore
  • I remember originally hearing about the idea of building a huge wall along the entire Mexican border on a call-in radio show a while back from some dumbass redneck and thinking how idiotic the man sounded and how there was no way in hell that retard would ever see the U.S. government spend the money on making this man's dreams come true.

    I stand corrected.

    This is classic band-aid domestic policy and does nothing to tackle either the source of the immigrants desire to come here (American businesses/contractors paying them off the books below the minimum wage) or the boundless demand Americans have for illegal drugs.

    mako2424
  • Right, see, Chertoff has simply made it easier to determine where to build fences to protect GOOD Americans from unlawfulness - first, we start by building a fence around Chertoff.

    It's a Busheney gang strategy to scam people anywhere and everywhere they can. Chertoff? A Bush appointee or any association remotely close? Well, nuff said - isn't it clear?
    VoyagerFilms
  • The crux of the story is the government’s right to use it’s own land. When a piece of land is sold, Easements are the government letting the land purchaser use the government’s land, not the other way around. Precedence goes way back.

    Laws are what hold this country together, lawyers try to take those laws apart.
    Pwdrskir
  • And who made it the government's land? They did? Free country my ass then. And when that land is used to the detriment of the constitutional rights of Americans, or human rights abuses of others, or to despoil the environment, the people have the right to protest it. I stand with those who brought the suit.
    JanforGore
  • I wish someone would actually propose a solution to the immigration problem instead of arguing about the government building walls.
    Ricky84
  • With as many people from mexico sneak into our city, hell, its an extreme idea, but what would be wrong with uniting the countries. Its an out there idea, and will probably never happen, but ya never know.
    dmass5
  • We know fences don't work. The fences are also splitting some communities on the border clean in two. Neighbors and locals are being cut off from each other, and many have jobs on the other side, jobs they have had for decades and are not "stealing" from anyone else. This madness must be stopped, for not only that reason but that it splits right into nature preserves, cutting off migration routes, and threatening the very existence of many species on the border. And for what cause? No bid contract companies hired to build the fence, and pocketing large sums of taxpayer dollars. But it's ok, because we're keeping those illegals out, who can get through the fence faster than it takes them to make it.
    recommended by  JanforGore
    Egnatius212
  • Like it or not the government is entitled to eminent domain.
    dacochren
  • When will people realize that Bush and his friends do not do anything unless there is a profit involved!
    Jtonio4823
  • Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...
    This country is such a mess. "Keeping those illegals out", it just fucks with my head everytime I hear it or read it.
    Swizzle2
  • It comes down to drawing a line in the sand, those who arent allowed in and thats the end of it. Immigration issues are put aside while other bigger issues seem to be more important, 'war on terror, climat change, etc etc'.
    20 years from now you wont even recognize the US for the rats running amuck on the streets. Watch 'Escape from New York'. I thought the movie too far-out at the time, but seems to be coming true today. Scary, very scary.
    realcanadian
  • realcanadian: I read Homeland Security even wants to put a wall between America and Canada and have cameras at the borders. Can you say Police State? Just how much of this is really even about immigration, but more about control and the new world order?
    JanforGore
  • http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/200...
    Image...
    Here you go. Congress approved studying a border fence between America and Canada in 2006. The same year as the Secure Fence Act of 2006. And recently, both governments agreed to share military resources across borders in case of a "civil emergency." There is more to this than meets the eye.
    JanforGore
  • How could an entry that was on the homepage in the top ten as recently as a half hour ago just drop off the face of the site? I can't find this anywhere now since the last two comments were posted. ?
    JanforGore
  • I've noticed this happen to other stories, as well. Hopefully, Current is seeing that these are very real, and serious stories, and doing what any smart network should do, by verifying the facts before airing them.
    celestialceiling
  • Yes, I've seen it too done with others as well while some I would categorize as less than important as far as serious news remain in the same place for days.This was right at the top for over a day and now in the blink of an eye it is nowhere to be found. Strange how that works.
    JanforGore
  • Yes JanforGore, ive heard talk of a border fence between Canada and the States but that was years ago. The whole idea sound crazy. The economies are siamese twins, with enough resources to live independently for a long time. I think Canada would be better being the fifty-seventh state, or is it fifty-eight. How many states has Obama been to?
    Anyhow, we wouldn't need fences at all if the streets were patrolled by our own military for our own safety. A government by the people for the people. Im for world peace, boycott Israel.
    realcanadian

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