Border wall construction in Starr cut from 8 to 4 miles

[Elderberry]

The Monitor by Lorenzo Zazueta-Castro April 10, 2019

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, announced Wednesday that the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers would only be constructing four of the eight miles originally slated for Starr County, according to a news release.

“This is a big win for the Rio Grande Valley. I worked hard to include language through the appropriations process that would protect communities from an ineffective and divisive border wall. This change order reduces the number of miles from eight to four in Starr County,” Cuellar said in the release.

Congress approved border wall funding last March as part of a $1.3 trillion omnibus bill that gave $1.6 billion for border walls along the U.S.-Mexico border — 25 miles of which would be for levee wall fencing in Hidalgo County and 8 or so miles of fencing in Starr County.

More: https://www.themonitor.com/2019/04/10/cuellar-border-wall-construction-starr-cut-8-4-miles/

[Cyber Liberty]

If he's so thrilled, maybe we should cancel all the walls in his district (tear 'em down if there are any).  Then the invaders will have a good place they know they can pass.  It sounds like his District may be short a few MS13 gang bangers.

[Sanguine]

 

[Elderberry]

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 60,968 people residing in the county. 0.4% were Non-Hispanic White, 0.2% Asian, 0.1% Native American, 0.1% Black or African American, 3.0% of some other race and 0.5% of two or more races. 95.7% were Hispanic or Latino (of any race). According to the Census Bureau, Starr County had the highest percentage of Hispanic residents of any county in the United States

[Hoodat]

“This is a big win for the Rio Grande Valley. I worked hard to include language through the appropriations process that would protect communities from an ineffective and divisive border wall. This change order reduces the number of miles from eight to four in Starr County,” Cuellar said in the release.

I have a lot of co-workers who live in The Valley.  They support anything that would prevent drug violence from spilling over into Texas.

[Elderberry]

http://specials.mystatesman.com/starr-county-border-wall/

Border Patrol officials call this stretch of the Rio Grande, the 70 miles in Starr County, the most volatile of the entire southern border. The area has the second-most immigration arrests, trailing only the neighboring McAllen station, and the second-most narcotics seizures, just behind a station in Arizona, according to station chief Ryan Landrum.



Federal officials here say the 500 or so agents who patrol the county are woefully undermanned. “This is the last real stronghold of really wide-open area,” Landrum says.

The U.S. Border Patrol says a plan to build 32 miles of border wall in Starr County, at an estimated cost of $784 million, will help agents gain control of the area.

But for the past decade, the county has confounded Border Patrol officials and government planners hoping to build a border barrier. Its unique geography, featuring steep bluffs and neighborhoods built up to the river’s edge and a determined resistance from residents who own land along the river and from well-organized environmentalist groups have complicated plans for wall construction.

A Bush-era plan to build 14 miles of wall segments in Starr County fizzled out under the Obama administration as money, and political will, dried up. If the Trump administration follows through on its plan to build a wall, the section in Starr County will be one of the highest priorities for Border Patrol officials — and one of the most hotly contested parts of the project.

No place are the unique realities of Starr County more apparent than in the 250-year-old city of Roma, where a historic downtown sits along the river’s edge, just above bluffs that draw birding enthusiasts from around the country. A recently built drainage culvert empties flood water from the city into the Rio Grande and city officials fear a border wall or fence could trap floodwaters in the city.