On the Rio Grande, Anger Swells Over Plans for Fence

WP: On the Rio Grande, Anger Swells Over Plans for Fence
Residents, Ecologists United in Opposition
By Sylvia Moreno
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 22, 2007; Page A12

ROMA, Tex. -- Since 1767, some 150 acres of wooded riverfront along the Rio Grande has belonged to the family of Cecilia Ramirez Benavides, land granted to her ancestors by Spanish settlers who colonized Mexico, or New Spain, as it was then known.

Generations later, much of the Ramirez tract, with its mile of riverbank, remains undisturbed, overrun by huge mesquite and ebony trees, thick clusters of prickly pear cactus and chaparral. It is inhabited by the endangered ocelot -- only 100 are believed to remain in the United States -- the bright-orange Altamira oriole with its distinctive whistle and huge, pouchlike woven nests, and the green jay, with its bright-blue nape.

Already, the modern world has intruded on this privately owned mini-nature preserve. Cecilia Benavides and her husband, Noel Benavides Sr., have given the Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the National Guard permanent access to their land to apprehend illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.

But the Department of Homeland Security's latest entreaty is where the couple have decided they must draw the line. Their tranquil piece of riverfront -- owned by the Ramirez clan long before northern Mexico became Texas -- lies directly in the path of the federal government's plan to build 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.

"They're going to destroy an ecosystem that took centuries and that's never going to come back," said Noel Benavides, an alderman in this small border city....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/21/AR2007062102081.html?nav=most_emailed

...They are doing far more economic damage to the U.S. than illegal immigrants

should stop this madness. If it does not, then it is time for a crusade against this insane government.