Just say “no!”

Michelle Mittelstadth in the Houston Chronicle 

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department as early as next week will go to court to force 102 property owners along the U.S.-Mexico boundary, including 71 in Texas, to allow surveyors to determine if the border fence should be built on their lands.

The 102 landowners — including 20 in California and 11 in Arizona — either rebuffed or ignored a 30-day deadline given by the Department of Homeland Security to provide access to their lands for the fence, which has been particularly hotly contested in the Rio Grande Valley.

The majority of Texas landowners identified by the Border Patrol and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the site surveys agreed to comply with the government’s request, albeit many of them reluctantly.

Of the 408 Texas property owners affected, 337 agreed to comply.

The list of property owners refusing to grant access to their land includes local city and county governments, utilities, businesses, the Nature Conservancy and individuals.

…Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is under pressure to complete 370 miles of fencing, including about 130 miles in Texas, by October. But he’s faced significant opposition, particularly in Texas, from individuals and local elected officials who are fighting the fence on grounds it will disrupt life along the border while doing little to deter illegal immigrants.

Though lawsuits are being readied to defend the property owners’ rights, Chertoff has two major weapons in his arsenal: the government’s ability to seize land through eminent domain, and the powers he was granted by Congress to waive environmental and other laws to build border fences.

The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, which may represent some of the landowners in court, argues that the federal government is trampling on indigenous, water and property rights.

“We plan to see the Department of Homeland Security in court,” said the center’s executive director, Peter Schey.