Texans Support Border Control by Water

Texas mayors oppose building a fence at the Mexican border in favor of widening and deepening the Rio Grande River. They believe the fence would damage relations with neighboring Mexican towns and may harm farmers’ businesses by cutting off their line to the river.

Mayors of predominantly Mexican cities have named the proposed fence the “wall of shame.” The mayors said that they are willing to take the government to court if they remain adamant about building the fence.

The mayors believe that altering the depth and width of the Rio Grande would solve all the problems at hand. They think this action would be more effective in hindering illegal immigration. Brownsville mayor, Pat Ahumada, stated, “A widened river would be a bigger deterrent to illegal immigration and the project doesn’t send the wrong message to Mexico that the wall does.”

Brownsville and Laredo are the front-running cities with plans to expand the Rio Grande. The projects would involve tripling the river’s width by digging on the U.S. side and deepening the river to 10 feet at its shallowest points.

By expanding the river, the time it takes immigrants to cross the river would increase by four to five minutes, giving Border Patrol more time to spot border-crossers. Because the river is a bi-national waterway Mexico must also agree to the plan, and, so far, Mexican officials are in favor of the river expansion.

The debates arising now are the safety aspects of the river expansion. Some officials argue that this plan will only result in more immigrant drowning deaths. Rio Grande expansion officials do not agree, but more research is being conducted on the subject before the project will move on.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/usa_border_wall_dc;_ylt=AtrO6E4gTb4UjSVC625ANkJQuk0A