From: PAGAN, DAVID (b)

To: (b) (6)

SELF, JEFFREY (b) (6)
Subject: Border fence planning not without its holes
Date: Monday, February 11, 2008 9:10:26 AM

Border fence planning not without its holes

Austin American Statesman

By The Editorial Board | Sunday, February 10, 2008, 06:36 PM

When the border fence talks began, members of the U.S. House of Representatives
emphasized oversight in the government’s homeland security plans. Oversight on contracts
greater than $20 million is great, but as the fence becomes a reality, it is foresight the feds are
lacking.

After failing at other methods of border surveillance, the U.S. government is using a fast and
heavy hand to build the border fence, cutting through Texas towns along the U.S.-Mexico
border and leaving Texas university property and landmarks on the other side.

Michael Chertoff, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, visited McAllen
on Friday to survey the land that lies along the proposed path of the fence. He announced that
he would grant Hidalgo County’s wish to add concrete to the existing levees, making the
border more secure and the area less susceptible to flooding.

The University of Texas System has suggested a similar plan be used at the UT-Brownsville
and Texas Southmost College joint campus, which also has levees along the river. As the
federal plan stands, the fence will run right through university property, leaving 166 acres of
university land between the fence and the river.

Legally, a state cannot give up its land, so what happens to the historic Fort Texas and UTB-
TSC’s golf course, Mexican consulate building and economic development offices that would
be fenced out of Texas? The universities are asking the federal government the same question
and have yet to receive an answer.

Juliet Garcia, the president of both universities, has refused to allow Homeland Security to
survey the university land. Texas Southmost College trustees agree that the fence, along with
the construction it entails, would be disruptive to students and to the environment.
Sidestepping a lawsuit, the UT regents resolved Wednesday in a meeting at sister campus
UT-Pan American in Edinburg to “support our government’s efforts to secure our borders.”

Barry Burgdorf, UT’s vice chancellor and general counsel, says the U.S. government hasn’t
said what will happen to the land outside of the fence, but there will likely be some form of
access points, which might or might not have gates.

Either way, this fence is going to have holes. How’s that for foresight?