OBP005834

From: (b) (6)

To: (b) (6)
Cc: (b) (6)
Subject: RE: Border Fence NewsClips, 18 Mar
Date: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 3:47:45 PM

Good afternoon (b)

(6)
I just spoke with (b) and we want to be prepared for any media calls on the subject.
(6)
Did you find out anything from the Sector?

(b) (6)
Secure Border Initiative
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
(b) (6)
For more information about the Secure Border Initiative, visit www.cbp.gov/sbi or contact us at
SBI_info@dhs.gov.

-----Original Message-----
From: (b) (6)
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 7:13 AM
To: (b) (6)

Subject: Re: Border Fence NewsClips, 18 Mar

I found out about it late yesterday also... I have reached out to EPT to get a better feel for it after
reading that article. Yesterday, EPT said that they had actually met with the Mayor before and this brief
was for the council. Not sure if this is foot stomping to see if the neigbors are listening or what.....
(b)
(6)
----- Original Message -----
From: (b) (6)
To: (b) (6)

Sent: Tue Mar 18 07:07:45 2008

Subject: Re: Border Fence NewsClips, 18 Mar

Who was in the loop re: the El Paso City Council briefing for temp access? I was unaware of the issue
until late yesterday. The Mayor complains here about lack of info and a cancelled briefing due to HQ
shutting down Sector. Any help on this would be appreciated.

----- Original Message -----

From: (b) (6)
To: (b) (6)

Sent: Tue Mar 18 06:15:32 2008

Subject: FW: Border Fence NewsClips, 18 Mar

Clips regarding yesterday’s events.

(b) (6)
OBP005835

Secure Border Initiative

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

(b) (6)

For more information about the Secure Border Initiative, visit www.cbp.gov/sbi
<http://www.cbp.gov/sbi> or contact us at SBI_info@dhs.gov <mailto:SBI_info@dhs.gov> .

Texas landowners say government never negotiated access for fence

09:08 PM CDT on Monday, March 17, 2008
Associated Press
McALLEN, Texas – Several South Texas property owners testified in federal court Monday that
government officials seeking access to land to survey for the border fence did not try to negotiate
before suing.

Offers of $100 compensation for the temporary access to their land along the Rio Grande only came
after government lawyers started the condemnation process, property owners in Hidalgo and Starr
counties said Monday.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, who has held several hearings on cases in Cameron County, said he
would rule as soon as possible on more than a dozen government lawsuits that are the first in Hidalgo
and Starr counties.

But the three-hour hearing Monday, where witnesses were called to recount their conversations with
government officials and lawyers parsed the definition of "negotiate," was exactly the sort of legal
wrangling the government hoped to avoid.

By the end of the year, Congress has demanded that there be 670 miles of fencing along the border
with Mexico to slow illegal immigration. Dozens of South Texas landowners have provided a bump in
that road by refusing to grant access to their property for fence surveys. The government sued them
and now finds itself on defense, filing affidavits and arguing that it tried to negotiate with landowners
before suing them.

The Justice Department has sued more than 50 property owners in Texas this year – a total of 75 along
the whole U.S.-Mexico border.

A recent ruling from Hanen ordered the government to first try to negotiate access with landowners.
On Monday, Hanen indicated the bar was fairly low for what could constitute negotiation and allow the
eminent domain cases to proceed.

"If I offer you $100 and you say 'No way,' then at least there's been negotiation the court can move
on," Hanen said.
Hanen does not have jurisdiction to consider the amount of compensation. He is looking for evidence of
an attempt at back-and-forth between the government and property owners.

Hanen also said that asking a property owner to sign a waiver under threat of condemnation "doesn't
sound like negotiation to me."

Thelma Ramey, chief financial officer for the Rio Grande City Consolidated Independent School District,
said she was unaware of any compensation offer from government officials who had appeared at a
school board meeting and followed up with phone calls and a letter.

"The word 'negotiation' has never been communicated to us," Ramey said. "I was not aware we could
negotiate."
The government wants to survey the school district's 132-acre campus that extends to the Rio Grande
in Starr County.
District Superintendent Roel Gonzalez said the school board refused to vote on granting access because
they wanted more details on what access would mean. The district's administrative offices share the
campus with elementary and middle schools and more than 1,000 students. A wildlife refuge on part of
OBP005836

the property near the river is used as a living classroom.

"When it comes to the children, I have to worry beforehand," Gonzalez said.

Justice Department lawyers seemed to have already adopted the lessons from Hanen's ruling in the
case of Eloisa Tamez, a Cameron County landowner. After a month of deliberation, Hanen sided with the
government on virtually every point in that case, but gave them two weeks to either present evidence of
bona fide attempts at negotiation with Tamez or begin those negotiations.

In the case against the school district government lawyers were prepared avoid similar delays by
offering evidence of their attempts to negotiate access.

They filed an affidavit from a real estate official with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers attesting to
multiple attempts made to discuss the issue with the school district.

Celestino Gallegos, an attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid representing two landowners Monday,
argued that bona fide negotiations had to involve some discussion of compensation. He said since the
government did not enter negotiations with his clients before suing, the cases should be dismissed so
negotiations can properly begin.

The Department of Homeland Security has won access in 35 of the 75 cases filed along the border,
according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Most of the nearly 500 property owners in the fence's
path gave voluntary access to their land and as of Feb. 21, 303 miles of fencing had been built.

Hanen will hear two more cases in Brownsville Wednesday, including one against the University of
Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.

Judge hears border fence complaints

Landowners: Government never negotiated
Jeremy Roebuck <mailto:jroebuck@themonitor.com>
The Monitor
March 17, 2008 - 7:34PM
McALLEN - More than 25 Hidalgo and Starr county landowners aren't likely to find support from the
courts to block border fence surveys on their properties.

During a court hearing Monday, U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen indicated he would likely stand by
a ruling he made in a similar case earlier this month when deciding whether to grant the government's
request to access their lands.

The judge previously determined the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ultimately has the right to
condemn the property under federal law, provided that negotiations on the terms of surveying access
take place.

Making that precedent clear, Hanen started Monday's hearing by urging the landowners and their
lawyers to limit their arguments to pertinent issues only.

"The best way to describe why we're here is to describe why we're not here," he said. "We're not here
to debate the merits of the fence."

Still, several of the property owners the federal government sued told the court they feared the surveys
could irreparably damage their property.

G. Allen Ramirez, an attorney representing the Rio Grande City school district over a 132-acre tract, said
the process could disrupt class schedules, damage taxpayer property and endanger a wildlife refuge on
the plot.

"There have been no discussions at all between the school district and the government on how to
ensure minimal disruption," he said.

Representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Border Patrol began contacting
landowners last spring seeking access to survey their land and test its suitability for fencing stretches.
OBP005837

Current plans call for 370 miles of border fence and 300 miles of vehicle barriers along the southern
U.S. border by the end of this year.
But earlier this month, representatives from the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that
"keeping on schedule will be challenging because of ... difficulties in acquiring rights to border lands."

"It is the commitment of the government to be minimally intrusive," said Andy Goldfrank, who is with
the U.S. Justice Department's land acquisition division, on Monday.

Pamela Rivas, however, insisted the government had never tried to negotiate access with her.
She met with Border Patrol agents in December to discuss surveys on her property near the Los Ebanos
ferry, but said she was only given a form that promised $100 for 12 months of access.

A month later, she was sued.

"They were very vague about what they would do," she said. "They didn't say a whole lot."
Government attorneys said that representatives had previously discussed terms with Rivas' father, who
she described as a man in his 80s suffering from "early stages of dementia."

Baldomero Muñiz, too, said he had minimal contact with government agents before his case ended up
in court.
An elderly goat herder who also owns land near Los Ebanos, Muñiz said Border Patrol agents handed
him a form to sign. But since he is unable to read in English or Spanish, he was not sure what it said.

"It was basically a form letter that said, ‘Sign this or get sued,'" said his attorney, Celestino Gallegos.
Muñiz didn't sign it because he did not understand the content.
On March 7, Hanen ruled in a similar case that the government was entitled to access a Cameron
County landowner's property but ordered further negotiations between the parties.

"There is contradictory and insufficient evidence before this court as to whether there has been bona
fide efforts to negotiate," Hanen's 32-page opinion states.

Since many of the legal issues involved in Monday's cases are similar to that suit, the judge indicated
he intended to rule quickly.

He is also expected to hear two more cases in Brownsville this week, including one the federal
government filed against the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.

At Council, Border Barrier Details, and a Federal Request

by David Crowder
Newspaper Tree
City Council is to hear details about a higher, more tightly woven fence within city limits, and consider
federal requests for access to build the fence.

Posted on March 17, 2008

El Paso Mayor John Cook said the City Council could refuse to give the U.S. Corps of Engineers
permission today to cross city property and establish a staging area to start building a new border
fence.

The 15- to 18-foot-high, reinforced steel mesh fence is to start in the Ascarate Park area and go 56
miles along the Rio Grande to two miles east of the port of entry at Fort Hancock, said Doug Mosier,
the spokesman for Customs and Border Protection.

Irritated, Cook said that was more information than he had been able to get from the agency.
He said a briefing he was to have gotten about the project Monday from Bureau of Customs and Border
Protection officials fell through because “they didn’t have permission from Washington to tell us what
they were doing.”

Cook said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and CBP Commissioner Ralph Basham had both
assured him that the agency would seek input from communities “before any fencing decisions are
made.”
OBP005838

The fact that the press had received more information about the project than he had was, Cook said,
“pretty weird.”
Federal officials plan to brief City Council on the project and will be seeking the city’s OK today to cross
city land to a planned staging area for the project on International Boundary and Water Commission
property.

Cook said they may be in for a surprise.

“The access they’re asking for would allow them to store property on IBWC land by the Zaragosa
Bridge,” he said. “The question we’ve asked them is what it is exactly that they’re doing? Is it
something that some on the City Council would be opposed to? Is it a new wall or replacing a replacing
wall? But they haven’t answered the questions.

“Depending on what it is that they’re proposing to do, I could see some members of City Council
supporting a denial.”
The City Council meeting starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday on the second floor of City Hall at Durango and W.
Missouri. It will be broadcast and then replayed at 7 p.m. Tuesday on cable Channel 15.

Council meetings are also streamed live via Internet at www.ci.el-paso.tx.us/realplayer.asp

Information on the agenda is available at www.elpasotexas.gov or 541-4010.