Groups sue to stop Texas border fence

HOUSTON, May 16 (UPI) -- Nineteen Texas border communities Friday asked a federal court to halt construction of 70 miles of border fencing, court documents show.

The Houston Chronicle reported that the class action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by the Texas Border Coalition will be followed by a request for a temporary restraining order to block land seizures and fence construction by the Department of Homeland Security.

Peter Schey, executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, based in Los Angeles, said the lawsuit was designed to force federal officials to restart a process to obtain legal access to survey property owners' land needed before the government can purchase the land.

In the lawsuit, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was accused of failing to negotiate a ''reasonable price'' for taking property; failing to notify landowners of their rights; and exempting some wealthy landowners from having the fence built across their land.

Laura Keehner, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, scoffed at the allegations.

''We've nearly bent over backward to work with landowners,'' Keehner said in a statement. ''Accusations to the contrary are either ill-informed or just plain wrong.''