New Mexico News
| N.M. Fence Project to Be 81 Miles |
| Posted by () on May 22 2008 at 12:51 PM |
DEMING— The Department of Homeland Security has unveiled the largest barrier project ever planned for the New Mexico border— nearly 81 miles of steel obstacles from the Santa Teresa area south of Las Cruces to the state's Bootheel.
The X-shaped barriers are heavy steel crossbars, standing 5 feet tall. They are called Normandy-style for the defensive barriers erected by the Germans on the beaches of France in World War II, designed to repel invaders.
The new project comes on the heels of a 15-foot-high steel fence that was just completed last week near Sunland Park.
The border barriers are aimed at deterring drug traffickers and people who smuggle humans.
The Normandy-style barriers are supposed to be able to stop a 5-ton vehicle traveling 45 mph, said Gregory Gephart, DHS deputy program manager for tactical infrastructure. They will be erected from the Santa Teresa area west to the Bootheel in nine sections, ranging from two to 12.8 miles in length.
The estimated $120 million project is supposed to be completed by the end of the year.
"I think nothing but good can come of it," said Teresa Johnson, who runs the 100,000-acre Johnson Ranches with her husband, Joe, about 15 miles west of Columbus.
The ranch fronts the border along an 8-mile stretch that before the arrival of National Guard troops in 2006 was crossed by as many as 1,000 illegal immigrants in a day.
"It's really going to help things," Teresa Johnson said this week. "It's going to be horribly expensive, but in the long run, it will be helpful."
Officials with the Department of Homeland Security and the Border Patrol held an open-house informational meeting Monday evening in Deming on the vehicle barrier project.
The Department of Homeland Security plans to seek competitive bids for the projects in July or August.
Public comments on the project can be sent by visiting the Web site www.BorderFencePlanning.com.
The New Mexico vehicle barrier project is the product of the Secure Fence Act of 2006, in which Congress authorized construction of 700 miles of barriers along the 2,000-mile Mexican border. Congress focused on barrier construction after failing to agree on a broader immigration reform package.
The extensive construction of vehicle barriers in New Mexico will follow several other recent projects aimed at fortifying the state's southern border. Among those projects are:
A 1.09-mile-long stretch of fence, standing about 15 feet tall, that extends an existing fence between Sunland Park and Colonia Anapra on Ciudad Juárez's western edge. The new fence, completed last week, runs up over the top of a mesa overlooking the border town of Sunland Park.
One mile of fence west of the Santa Teresa port of entry, and two miles of fence east of the port. That project is wrapping up.
Construction of a 1.2-mile-long stretch of fence east of the Columbus port of entry that will be attached to an existing 1.5-mile-long section of fence. The project was expected to begin today and be completed in about a month and a half.
When the latest section of fence east of Columbus is completed, the Columbus port of entry will be bracketed by two 3-mile-long sections of fence.
A contractor also is installing 40-foot-tall, high-intensity light poles along the three miles of pedestrian fence west of the Columbus port of entry.
Retiree Mark Winder, who lives two miles west of Columbus and attended the DHS open house, said that since a fence stretching west of the Columbus port of entry was completed last fall, he has seen far fewer intrusions by illegal crossers, less trash and less damage to his property.
"Since the barriers have been installed, our lives have been dramatically improved," Winder said.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on April 1 waived more than three dozen federal laws, including environmental provisions, to allow completion of hundreds of miles of border fences and vehicle barriers by the end of the year.
Despite the waivers, DHS pledged to be "good stewards" of the land, Gephart said.
Kevin Bixby, executive director of the Southwest Environmental Center in Las Cruces, said the DHS statements sound "like happy talk."
"It just sounds like lip service to me," said Bixby, adding that if DHS wanted to meet environmental impact review standards, the agency could abide by the federal laws Chertoff waived.
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