I'm haven't spent a lot of time on the issue of building the Berlin Wall - South in Texas, but apparently those affected by it have. And it might surprise you how they have reacted to the government offering cash for land access.
The AP reports
Feds Scrap Plan to Pay Texas Landowners
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 2:05pm
EL PASO, Texas
Cold, hard cash is apparently not enough to quell the anger among landowners over a planned fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Opponents of the fence refused federal workers access to their land last month in South Texas. About the same time, the government offered to pay some property owners $3,000 in exchange for permission to conduct surveys for the project.
After many of them balked at the money on principle, the government abandoned the plan.
"I think it's blood money, bribery," said Brownsville Mayor Patricio M. Ahumada Jr.
The proposal to build 370 miles of steel fence is widely opposed in the Rio Grande Valley, the most heavily populated part of the Texas-Mexico border and a region with an economy and culture dependent on cross-border traffic.
The payments were being offered in a region where the median family income is about $30,000. But instead of welcoming the windfall, many residents were outraged when federal officials described the payment plan.
Ahumada, whose border city has already denied fence-planners access to city property, said the payments were insulting and disingenuous.
"The federal government is doing all it can to get access," Ahumada said. "They are thinning the herd (of opposition), so to speak, one by one. These tactics are not unusual when they want to get something done like this."
No comments:
Post a Comment