In dramatic fashion Tuesday, the El Paso City Council refused to have anything to do federal plans to build new spans of 18-foot high fencing along the border through El Paso.

The council members, after disparaging border fences, the federal government’s immigration policy and its lack of consultation with El Paso and its residents, unanimously refused to give the government permission to cross city property to reach a staging area for the storage of construction materials needed for the project near the Zaragosa Bridge.

Mayor John Cook later said El Paso is the largest city on the border to oppose the fence and to stand in the way of its construction. That will invite a federal lawsuit against the city, he said.

After being briefed on the project by Border Patrol Agents John Contreras and Roy Hoats, Westside city Rep. Ann Lilly set the tone for reactions from the other council members.

“I lived in Germany when the Berlin Wall went up, and I always said my country would never do this,” she said. “I could never support this.”

She noted that the terrorists responsible for the deadly attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 entered the United States through Canada, not Mexico.

Hoats said federal agencies conducted more than 70 community outreach meetings to explain the border fence plans in general. [see link at bottom of page for the presentation]

“Overwhelmingly, the population of El Paso supports our fencing initiatives,” he said.

Council members questioned the validity of those meetings and the notice announcing them to the public.

“The majority of people I’ve spoken to are against it,” Northeast Rep. Melina Castro said. “I’m trying to figure out how many people you had participating.”

Council members went out of their way to express their support for the work Contreras, Hoats and other agents do, while voicing opposition to the immigration policies being carried out by the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection.

The plan is to erect 93 miles of reinforced steel fencing to prevent pedestrian crossings from Mexico and barriers to vehicle crossings in the El Paso sector, which includes 33 miles in New Mexico, 60 miles in Texas and 13 miles in El Paso along the Border Highway and West Paisano.

“What we’re talking about here is the safety of the United States,” Hoats said.

With that, Eastridge/Mid-Valley Rep. Steve Ortega made the sharpest attack of the day on what he called the nation’s broken immigration policy.

In the past, the federal government has enacted laws and practices against African-Americans, Native Americans and the Irish.

“Now it’s the turn of Hispanics to be subjected to it,” he said. “I, in no way, will support this. I will not aid the federal government in trying to install this in the city of El Paso.”

Jesus “Chuy” Reyes, the brother of U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, and the general manager of the El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1, said nine miles of fencing would be on irrigation district property and would prevent ready access to the Riverside canal and district facilities. [jan. 6, 2008 npt background]

That would hamper the irrigation district’s efforts to access the canal and maintain facilities needed to supply farmers with irrigation water and the city with half of the water it uses annually.

“We are going to condemnation on his,” Reyes said, explaining that the district will force the government to sue for access, the right to build on district property and to cross district canals and drains.

The motion to deny permission to the U.S. Corps of Engineers to cross city property to the staging area on International Boundary and Water Commission land came from West Central city Rep. Susie Byrd, who also requested that the city base its opposition in part of the lack of consultation regarding the fence project with the city and its residents.

David Crowder can be reached at dcrowder@epmediagroup.com or at (915) 351-0506.

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