Planned border fence to create no man’s land

Big questions for landowners
What will happen to the land between the fence and the river is the biggest question for landowners in border towns like Granjeno, a town of three streets and about 400 people situated in a mostly corn-growing region of the Rio Grande Valley.

J.D. Salinas, the top elected official in Hidalgo County, said he can’t get an answer no matter how many times he asks.

“Are we going to lose prime farmland because they are going to build a structure that’s not going to work?” Salinas asked. “You’re moving the border, basically two miles. You’re giving it up to Mexico, and the U.S.-Mexico treaties say you are not supposed to do that.”

Local officials also fear the fence could cut off access to drinking water that is pumped from the river and piped in to 35,000 homes in the Rio Grande Valley. They fear that town officials will not be allowed to set foot inside the no man’s land to repair any pumps that might fail.

Homeland Security documents on a department Web site say that “in some cases, secure gates will be constructed to allow land owners access to their private property near the Rio Grande.” But the documents offer few details.

“They said there’s going to be gates, and I said, ‘That’s wonderful. What kind of gates?”’ said Noel Benavides, Cecilia Benavides’ husband. The only specific type described, he said, was an electronic gate.

“That requires power. What happens when it floods?” Benavides said he asked federal officials. He never got an answer.

Biggest fear
Granjeno Mayor Alberto Magallan said his small town wants to fight. But with only one business — an agricultural trucking company and bar — and a per capita income of $9,000, it is unlikely they can afford to do anything but sell.

Manuel Olivarez Jr., a 63-year-old lumber salesman, said that his daughter’s and brother’s homes would be spared, but that the fence would run through their backyards. And Olivarez worries the Border Patrol is likely to pass very close to his daughter’s house every day.

“Probably if she sticks out her hand from the back door, a Border Patrol Jeep will be hit her,” Olivarez said with a nervous laugh.

Gloria Garza, Daniel Garza’s niece, said she worries the border fence will eventually destroy the town where she has lived all her life.

“My biggest fear is to see Granjeno gone,” Garza said. “That is really my biggest fear. It breaks my heart.”

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