Texas opposition grows to border fence

EAGLE PASS, Texas, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Opposition is growing in Texas to a border fence separating the United States and Mexico in order to better control immigration, a report said Thursday.

Del Rio, Texas, Mayor Efrain V. Valdez said he will challenge a $1.2 billion U.S. government plan to build security fences along the border with Mexico.

"I'm speaking for 45,000 people when I say that those who want this fence don't understand the border, don't understand our sense of community," Valdez told the Washington Times. "We are loyal, devoted Americans. We are not against border security, not against the construction of fences where it makes sense."

Maverick County Judge Jose Aranda, a former mayor of Eagle Pass, Texas, says the fence is "an illusion" to make it appear Congress is doing something about illegal immigration.

Comments like those are heard all along the south Texas border, the Washington Times reports, where many civic and community leaders and private landowners have been threatened by the federal government with eminent domain challenges.