From: (b) (6)

To: (b) (6) ; PAGAN, DAVID G.- (b) (6)

Cc: (b) (6)
Subject: FW: Border Fence NewsClips, 17 Jan
Date: Thursday, January 17, 2008 7:26:09 AM

Good morning.

For your awareness, new articles on fence.

Also attached are draft talking points on ongoing site visits for VF300. Please let me know if you have
any comments or questions on the site visits.

(b) (6)
Secure Border Initiative
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
(b) (6)
For more information about the Secure Border Initiative, visi (b) (2) or contact us a (b) (2)

‘A right to fight’
City signs for border land surveys, adds fuel to fence fire
By Kevin Sieff/The Brownsville Herald
January 16, 2008 - 11:36PM

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers survey markers were placed in Hope Park several months
ago. Without the mayor'c consent, the city has granted permission for the government to
survey it's land for the border fence.

The government’s demand for permission to conduct their initial surveys had been held at
bay for months by organized resistance movements led by border mayors, residents and other
elected officials.

That is until last week when city officials signed on the dotted line and stepped aside,
allowing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to access public land, including city parks near
the Rio Grande.

“We didn’t want to risk our relationship with the Corps,” Commissioner Ricardo Longoria
said Wednesday. “We’re depending on them for our resaca restoration project. ”

On Jan. 8, the city signed an agreement issued by the Department of Homeland Security
allowing the Corps of Engineers onto city properties.

In an Oct. 16 meeting, the City Commission denied Mayor Pat Ahumada’s proposal to refuse
access to government surveyors. According to Longoria, this denial constituted a vote to
grant consent to the surveyors.

But between the October meeting and the signing of the DHS document, no public vote took
place on the issue. City Manager Charlie Cabler said he signed the form in executive session,
behind closed doors.

“It is the first I hear of it," City Attorney Jim Goza said Wednesday. "I wasn’t aware that a
form had been signed or sent out.”

Goza could not recall a vote to allow access for land surveys and added that officials cannot
vote in executive session.

“As far as Charlie (Cabler) signing the form,” Commissioner Leo Garza said, “I don’t
remember us voting or authorizing him (to do that).”

The Department of Homeland Security sent a letter on Dec. 7 asking the city for its consent to
survey land, but according to city officials, the letter was sent to the wrong address. As a
result, officials say, the city didn’t respond until after DHS’ Jan. 6 deadline.

Although the form of consent was only recently signed, commissioners discussed the issue at
several commission meetings in late 2007. They claim to have considered the expertise of
federal representatives, including U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi.

“We were told that there wasn’t much we could do,” Longoria said. “It was out of our
control.”

However, Ortiz claims he offered no such insight. "If I was a landowner I wouldn’t give
consent,” he said.

“The city commissioners will have to make the decision on their own.”

Mayor Ahumada was not present at the Jan. 8 closed-door meeting. On Wednesday, he was
incensed by the City Commission’s decision. Surveyors will now have access to property at
Hope Park, Impala Park, and several other stretches of land that lie in the path of a proposed
fence stretching 17 miles in Brownsville.

“We’re only making it easier for them to start this project,” Ahumada said. “Citizens will
now be able to blame the commission if they don’t support the fence … We live in a divided
city.”

Ahumada is an active member of the Texas Border Coalition, an organization composed

largely of elected officials from border communities. The coalition offered to donate $25,000
toward the city’s legal defense, but now that commissioners have given their consent to DHS,
Ahumada doubts that the funds will be available.

The Brownsville Public Utilities Board received the same letter from DHS asking for
consent, but the board refused. PUB owns 300 acres of land on West 13th Street and another
130 acres in the Southmost area. The 13th Street property is the site of a river pumping
station, a power plant, and a water reservoir.

PUB could become a defendant in one of the 102 lawsuits expected to be filed in the fight
over a border fence.

On Monday, the Justice Department filed the first of such suits against the city of Eagle Pass.
A day later, the judge ordered the city to temporarily turn over land to the federal
government.
After land is surveyed, the federal government will begin the process of purchasing property
that lies along the path of the fence. If landowners refuse to sell, they will be sued again.

“They have a right to fight the fence,” Congressman Ortiz said, “and that’s what they’re
doing.”

U.S. sues to survey borderland for fence

9 Santa Cruz County landowners facing temporary condemnations
By Josh Brodesky
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.17.2008
The U.S. Justice Department has sued nine Santa Cruz County landowners, seeking
temporary condemnations of their properties in order to do survey work for a fence along the
Mexican border.

The condemnations, filed this week in the Evo A. Deconcini courthouse in Tucson, are part
of what is expected to be more than 100 lawsuits filed or planned in Texas, California and
Arizona seeking access to private land.

The suits invoking the government's right to eminent domain would give federal authorities
six months to do survey work and testing for proposed roads, fencing, vehicle barriers and
lighting, according to court documents.

President Bush would like to build 370 miles of fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers
along the border by year's end.

While a number of property owners along the border have complied, others have refused.
The Department of Homeland Security sent letters to the property owners in December. The
ones being sued have either not responded or have refused to allow the government access to
their property, said Andrew Ames, a Justice Department spokesman.

"At this point, we don't know where the fence is going to be built, and that's why these
surveys are going to be needed," he said.

If and when private property is needed to build the fence, Ames said the government will
take steps to reimburse property owners.

The Justice Department has said it is preparing to sue 11 landowners in Arizona, 71 in Texas
and 20 in California.
In Santa Cruz County, the Department of Homeland Security is seeking access to about 180
acres. Most of that land, about 170 acres, is associated with the Buena Vista Ranch
development, which is about 10 minutes outside Nogales.

Buena Vista is owned by Canadian-based developers Alex and Donald Mills.

Ronald Lehman, who represents the Mills brothers, said late Wednesday that neither he nor
his clients had reviewed the suits and therefore couldn't comment.

The balance of the land not owned by the Mills brothers is split into parcels ranging from a
few acres to a quarter of an acre. Efforts to reach the owners, who are spread throughout the
country, were unsuccessful.
U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, whose district includes Santa Cruz County and much of the
Arizona-Mexico border, said he was disappointed in the condemnations.

"I think it's an affront to private-property rights," he said. "I think you establish some very
dangerous precedents of the federal government going in at any time to condemn the
property as a security issue."

The difference between a temporary condemnation and a full condemnation, he said, is really
just a matter of semantics.

While the heated debate over immigration and the utility of a U.S.-Mexico border fence will
continue, the condemnation of the Buena Vista property is another twist in the development's
colorful history.

The land was once owned by health enthusiast Howard Inches, who sought to create a spa
there that would attract celebrities. Inches sold a number of lots in the development but never
produced any deeds. He was ultimately convicted of fraud and died mysteriously in Haiti,
according to Star archives.

The lots were distributed to the heirs of the people who had originally intended to buy them,
but Lehman said his clients Alex and Don Mills bought out a number of these owners in
either the late '70s or early '80s. But the development stalled for a number of reasons.

In 1997, Alex Mills told the Daily Star that he had nearly given up on the Buena Vista
development because of problems varying from needing an assured water supply to
conflicting ownership claims.

But Lehman said Wednesday night that the project has been developed to some degree, and
he said the land is "beautiful."

"The Mills brothers put a lot of work, sweat and money into solving all the related
problems," he said.
 VF300 SITE VISIT TALKING POINTS

Summary

Members of the SBI VF300 Project Team will be conducting two site visits along the
Southwest border in January. The purpose of these visits is to look at select proposed
VF300 fence laydown sites and determine whether these sites are appropriate for the
installation of vehicle fence. The visits will take place January 14 and 15 in the Tucson
Sector (Douglas, Sonoita and the Tohono O’odham Nation) and January 23 and 24 in
the Yuma Sector (the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge). Site visits to proposed
locations are a standard step in the planning process for all SBI projects. No final
decisions have been made with respect to specific deployment locations.

Background

 The Secure Border Initiative (SBI) is a comprehensive multi-year plan to secure

America’s borders and reduce illegal entries into the United States. SBInet is the
component of SBI charged with developing and installing the technology and tactical
infrastructure solutions to enable U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to gain
effective control of our Nation’s borders.

 Tactical infrastructure consists of roads (patrol, drag and access), fence (pedestrian
and vehicle fence), and lights. The two types of fence are designed to prevent either
the passage of people (pedestrian fence) or vehicles (vehicle fence).

 DHS is committed to having a total of 300 miles of vehicle fence along our nation’s
southern border by the end of December 2008.

VF300 Site Visit Specific Talking Points

 Vehicle Fence 300 (VF300) will construct approximately 300 miles of vehicle fence
in strategically desirable locations, as determined by Border Patrol operational
requirements. The majority of this vehicle fence will be constructed in Arizona and
New Mexico, with the remaining mileage to be constructed in California and
Texas. In all, VF300 will be deployed in the Yuma, Tucson and El Paso (New Mexico
only), and Marfa Border Patrol Sectors.

 Operational assessments by the local Border Patrol Agents and Chiefs – based on
illegal cross-border activity and the Border Patrol’s extensive experience – identified
locations where fencing would most effectively enhance border security.

 Members of the SBI VF300 Project Team will be conducting two site visits along the
Southwest border in January. The purpose of these visits is to look at select
proposed VF300 fence laydown sites and determine whether these sites are
appropriate for the installation of vehicle fence. The visits will take place on the
following dates in the following areas:

 January 14 and 15 in the Tucson Sector (Douglas and Sonoita).

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  January 23 and 24 in the Yuma Sector (the Tohono O’odham Nation, Cabeza
Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, and the Yuma Station).

 The VF300 Project Team will not be meeting with the Tohono O’odham Nation in
person. The visit will be conducted via a helicopter flyover.

 Site visits to proposed locations are a standard step in the planning process for all
SBI projects.

 No final decisions have been made with respect to specific deployment locations.

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