Homeland Security tells border group to f**k off

The Department of Homeland Security refused to grant the Texas Border Coalition additional consultation meetings, to which the coalition responded with a letter reiterating their proposal and calling for more local community input in the border fence construction process.

Chad Foster, Texas Border Coalition chairman, said in the letter that he regrets that DHS has chosen to reject the consultation proposal made to assist DHS with the requirement of Section 564 of Public Law 110-161.

The provision, which was written into the Omnibus Appropriations Bill by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-TX, and Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, requires DHS to consult with local governments and communities located near the sites where the border fence will be constructed.

Homeland Security can't be bothered to talk to the little people, but did they lie about having done so?

To the amazement of Texas border elected officials and environmental groups the Department of Homeland Security is still claiming it has held 18 town hall meetings about the border fence plan.

DHS has not responded to calls from the Guardian and other news organizations for details on the dates and venues of the meetings and evidence that public notices were placed in local newspapers in advance.

You know if they have a meeting, it will only be a formality. They're not listening. The even hid the Eagle Pass court hearing so that city officials were not allowed to present their side.

Border mayors are continuing to rally round the City of Eagle Pass after a court ruling gave the U.S. government permission to survey a parcel of its land in readiness for the construction of a border wall.

It was not only the filing of the lawsuit that angered Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster but the fact that his office was not even informed of the court hearing, border mayors say.

Foster and his city council colleagues thought Border Patrol was consulting in good faith over an alternative to the border fence plan that included clearing Carrizo cane from the banks of the Rio Grande so that Border Patrol agents had better line of sight to the river.

“What the government is doing, it’s like a police state,” said Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada. “They are dictating to the citizens. It’s very anti-American.”