Texas mayors deliver border wall protest to D.C. decision-makers

January 20, 2007
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

Mayors of border towns and cities traveled to Washington D.C. (Jan. 17) to express their united and resolute opposition to a wall or fence along the Texas-Mexico border. Their message – “Don’t do it!” – targeted elected representatives and Bush administration officials, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

The meeting was another outgrowth of the Texas Border Coalition’s (TBC) October, 2006, meeting in McAllen at which Del Rio Mayor Efrain Valdez, urged his peers to fight the installation of a border fence. It was authorized when, in the same month as the TBC meeting, President Bush had signed into law the congressional authorization to build 700 miles of the double-walled fence. Congress has yet to appropriate all funding for the project.

Wednesday morning (Jan. 17), Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster talked with LIVE! following his arrival in the Capitol City Tuesday afternoon. Foster said the mayors dined with U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-16th District, TX), Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-28th District, TX, Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-23rd Dist., TX), Rep. Salomon Ortiz (D-27th Dist., TX), and Rep. David Price (D-4th Dist., NC).

Foster explained the importance of the dinner guests to those opposed to the border fence. Cuellar is chair of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response. Price chairs the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives. Reyes, Foster believes, will chair the House Intelligence Committee. Before his election to Congress, Reyes served as chief of the El Paso Sector, U.S. Border Patrol.

“And now we’ve got people like Ciro [Rodriguez],” Foster said. “He represents the largest portion of the Texas-Mexico border and sits on the House Appropriations Committee and Subcommittee on Appropriations for the Homeland Security Committee.”

In their meetings, the border mayors learned that a new estimate to build the fence had been released last week. “The Congressional Research Service – completely independent, and politically beholden to no one – came out with a price tag of $49 billion for the 700 miles of fence, inclusive of maintenance,” Foster said.

On Wednesday, the mayors met with officials from the U.S. Department of Commerce to ensure the economists and administrators were aware of possible economic ramifications to implementation of US VISIT, the 2008 requirement for digital biographic and biometric data as well as official travel documents or passports for all travelers – including U.S. citizens – coming from Mexico in to the United States.

“They think it’s going to be pushed back [beyond 2008]. They just don’t have the technology to implement it yet,” said Foster, adding that the Commerce contingent was very interested in the opposition to the border fence. “They’ve got a dog in this fight, too,” said Foster. “Since Mexico is Texas’ biggest trade partner, they were pretty passionate to continue good commerce with Mexico.”

In the afternoon, the mayors met with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX). Both senators have been receptive to and supportive of the Texas Border Coalition’s deliberations on the border fence. The 2 p.m. meeting ensured coordination of the TBC pitch to Chertoff, at 4 p.m.

The thematic focus delivered to Chertoff, according to Foster, was the natural barrier along the Texas-Mexico border, the Rio Grande. “Over in Arizona, New Mexico and California, it’s different, but here we have the river, and that, with clearance of dense vegetation and better security cameras and sensors, makes a big difference,” Foster said. Also present at the meeting with Chertoff was Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar.

According to Foster, Chertoff was noncommittal on details, but said that, though it was his job to implement the law, and his decisions on how to do that, he is very receptive to the thoughts of communities that will have to live with those decisions. The secretary said conclusions about whether, when and where to build fence would be, in part, derived from input gathered from border communities and local “stakeholders” (elected officials, business community representatives, and citizen groups).

Asked if representatives from Mexico are considered among the “stakeholders” group, Foster said he could only speak for his efforts in Eagle Pass. “We get that kind of input by working through Mexican Consul Jorge Espejel,” he said. “We also discussed with Secretary Chertoff the need for a ‘guest worker’ program,” Foster said. “But that’s out of his area [of responsibility], it’s legislative.”

Foster and the other mayors received assurances of continuing interest from Chertoff. “We just emphasized that we’d like to be involved in those decisions,” Foster said. Chertoff assured the mayors they would be involved, “And he assured us he’ll be here on the border in the next 60 days,” Foster said. No specific itinerary or agenda has been established.

“But we’re planning on going back to Washington, within the next 45 to 60 days,” said Foster. “Just to make sure everything’s still on course. And the next trip we’re going to try to spread it out, and have some ‘quality time’ with the people working there.”

TBC’s next meeting is Tuesday (Jan. 23) in Austin, and once again Valdez will be unable to attend due to an important city council meeting in Del Rio that evening. Foster said this monthly scheduled TBC meeting was to address pertinent issues surfacing in the current session of the Texas Legislature. “But now our focus will be on getting our membership’s understanding of the border issues, and the need to maintain the energy with the Washington contacts,” Foster said.

Mayors from six border cities participated in the lobbying effort, including John Cook, El Paso, Richard Cortez, McAllen, Chad Foster, Eagle Pass, Kevin Hiles, Rio Grande City, Raul Salinas, Laredo, and Eddie Treviño, Brownsville. Del Rio Mayor Efrain Valdez was snowed in during last week’s winter storm, spending six hours on the tarmac at Del Rio International Airport while Continental Airlines staff tried without success to de-ice the aircraft.

Valdez is chair of the Immigration Reform Committee of Texas Border Coalition. Speaking with LIVE!, Wednesday, about missing the trip, Valdez’s disappointment was palpable. “But we had planned for this, and anybody who can be there can put on the presentation because we all worked on it together,” explained Valdez. He plans to attend future trips to Washington on behalf of border fence issues.

“The dynamics of Washington have sure changed!” exclaimed Foster in a follow-up phone call Thursday morning (Jan. 18), after he returned to Eagle Pass. “We want to continue to spread the border gospel. We have very receptive elected officials up there, because they’ve lived it, they’re from here. So, it was a very productive trip.”