Families Battle Feds Over US Border Fence

Many resist federal efforts, but judges order them to give up
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 16, 2008 7:30 PM CST
Families Battle Feds Over US Border Fence
A U. S. Border Patrol vehicle sits along the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, opposite the American-style football stadium in neighboring Piedras Negras, Mexico, Friday, Feb. 1, 2008. Border residents risk having their land barricaded by the proposed DHS border fence. ( AP Photo/J. Michael Short )   (Associated Press)

Americans on the southern US border are fuming over a federal fence that threatens to cut their properties in two, the Washington Post reports. The feds have erected about 165 miles of fence in the West and southwest, but some families, protecting land they have held for generations, are turning back surveyors. "This is the land that gave me my life and my spirit," one landowner said. "I will fight this all the way."

Federal judges are ordering families to give in, but some are finding free legal help in Los Angeles to fight Uncle Sam on the cheap. Topping their anger is a disdain for the barrier itself, which one resident says will be easily climbed over and dug under by illegal immigrants. "People in the rest of the U.S. just don't understand the reality of what's going on here," he said. (More border fence stories.)

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