Texas Border Mayors Sue Homeland Secretary Chertoff

WASHINGTON — Mayors from several Texas border cities filed a class action lawsuit Friday against Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to stop the building of a border fence along the Rio Grande.

The lawsuit alleges that Chertoff violated the rights of land owners along the border by failing to negotiate a "reasonable" price to gain access to their property, a requirement mandated by law.

It also said that Chertoff gave preference to politically connected land owners from having to turn over their property to build the fence while coercing others to sign waivers.

"We will not sit idly by while our property is seized by the federal government to build an expedient, but useless, expensive and potentially damaging wall across the Texas-Mexico border," said Chad Foster, mayor of Eagle Pass, Texas.

The Department of Homeland Security said the accusations are false.

"We've nearly bent over backward to work with landowners. Accusations to the contrary are either ill-informed or just plain wrong," said Laura Keehner, a spokeswoman for the agency.

Foster is the chairman of the Texas Border Coalition, a group of mayors and business leaders who have joined forces to oppose the border fence.

Peter Schey, the lead attorney for the coalition, said that the lawsuit is the most extensive filed against the government regarding the border fence and that he hopes to attain a preliminary injunction to halt the government's actions. Schey is the executive director of the Center for Human Rights & Constitutional Law, an advocacy group in Los Angeles.

Schey said that agents from the Border Patrol and Homeland Security Department intimidated more than 100 residents into giving permission for the federal government to use their land.

"They hoodwinked property owners into signing waivers of their rights," he said.

The lawsuit also alleges that Chertoff did not establish or make public any rules, regulations or directives on how negotiations should take place with landowners and municipalities along the border. In addition to Chertoff, it names Robert Janson, acting executive director of asset management at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as a defendant.

Congress mandated the building of about 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border in 2006. A year later, a bill supported by Texas GOP Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn repealed part of the law that dictated the fence's location and design. It also required the government to consult with land owners and local elected officials on building the barriers.

Other Texas mayors attending the press conference in Washington included Pat Ahumada, mayor of Brownsville, and Raul G. Salinas, mayor of Laredo.

Salinas, who spent 26 years in the FBI, said that "putting up a wall in Laredo is absolutely ridiculous" and that it would hurt the cooperative relationship with Mexico on law enforcement issues.

The mayors said they have various proposals that would better secure the border in their cities, including a few that would significantly widen the Rio Grande, allowing boats to patrol.

"Homeland Security is not listening to us," Ahumada said.

Keehner said that the department has contacted more than 600 landowners, held dozens of town hall meeting, sent hundreds of letters to property owners and "in many cases went door to door requesting access to private property so that we could make operational and environmental assessments of the area, prior to making any decisions."

Another lawsuit, filed by several environmental groups, claims that Chertoff exceeded his power when he waived 26 laws — including the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act — in the effort to build the fence earlier this year.

In addition, a few individual property owners have sued after the federal government filed condemnation suits to gain access to their land.

On the Web:

Department of Homeland Security: www.dhs.gov

Texas Border Coalition: www.texasbordercoalition.org

Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law: www.centerforhumanrights.org