Los Ebanos resident Aleida Flores Garcia walks toward the Rio Grande on her property. If Congress agrees on a comprehensive immigration reform bill, it will probably include a requirement to erect fencing that would wrap more of the nation’s nearly 2,000-mile Southwest border in tall steel columns. But the mandate would essentially double down on a strategy that the Customs and Border Protection agency isn’t even sure works. And the prospect of the government seizing more land offends many property owners here in the southernmost tip of Texas, where hundreds of people already lost property during the last fence construction spree.LOS EBANOS, Texas – If Congress agrees on a comprehensive immigration reform bill, it will probably include a requirement to erect fencing that would wrap more of the nation’s nearly 2,000-mile Southwest border in tall steel columns.
But the mandate would essentially double down on a strategy that U.S. Customs and Border Protection isn’t even sure works. And the prospect of the government seizing more land offends many property owners here in the southernmost tip of Texas, where hundreds of people already lost property during the last fence construction spree.
“I’m still totally against it,” said Aleida Garcia, who was among the Los Ebanos residents whose land was taken back in 2008, when this hamlet surrounded on three sides by the Rio Grande was slated to get a U-shaped segment of fencing.
Given the choice, Garcia said, she would rather have more agents patrolling the area. At least that would create some jobs, she added.
The region’s lawmakers appear to agree. Three Democratic congressmen from the Texas border who support immigration reform have announced that they would not support any bill conditioned on the construction of more border fence.