Border Fence Would Cut Through Texas University
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The steel fence that the U.S. government wants to build along the Mexican border would do more than slice through the University of Texas’ Brownsville campus and cut off the golf course from the rest of the school.
School officials say it would make a mockery of the very mission of the university: promoting close ties between the U.S. and Mexico.
The university—built close to the Rio Grande on land where the United States and Mexico traded cannon blasts during the Mexican-American War 160 years ago—recruits Mexican students, offers government and business classes in English and Spanish and turns out sorely needed bilingual teachers. It has a biological field station in Mexico and hosts educators at a Binational Conference every spring. About 400 of the 17,000 students are from Mexico, and more than half of them commute across the river to class.
The fence, if built as envisioned by the U.S. Border Patrol, would run a mile north of the Rio Grande, the international boundary, cutting off about 180 acres of the 465-acre campus. University officials say it would also thwart its hopes of expanding someday toward the river, and send the wrong message across the border.
“To slice off and fence off the ‘bi’ part of ‘binational’ violates the essence of this university,” said university President Juliet V. Garcia, whose office is situated in what was once the thick-walled, tan-brick hospital at Fort Brown, built shortly after the Civil War.
{snip}
People will still be able to reach the university from Mexico by way of the three international bridges that connect Brownsville to Matamoros, Mexico.
{snip}
The school’s architecture reflects the twin influences on the region: Its older buildings are 19th-century remnants of Fort Brown, with tan brick walls, galvanized steel roofs and shaded arcades. Other buildings are Spanish-influenced, with tile, towers and terra cotta roofs.
The land the golf course is on belongs to the International Boundary and Water Commission, but the university holds a 99-year lease on it. The government contends it can build parts of the fence on the property without the university’s consent.
The school, a part of the University of Texas system since 1991, said it cannot get a firm answer from the government on whether there will be a gate or some other opening that will enable students to reach the 165-acre course, which generates revenue for the university.
Also left in the no-man’s land south of the fence would be the ruins of old Fort Texas, which was built during the Mexican-American War in 1846 and now consists of little more than earthen mounds.
“Of course, we believe in protecting our borders,” the university president wrote in an open letter to students in January. “Of course, we believe in strong immigration policy. But we also understand that a fence, no matter how high or how wide, is no substitute for either.”
{snip}
Some students said they fear the fence will send the wrong message about them.
“You’re trying to divide the world,” said Omar Diaz, 20, a government major from Victoria, Mexico.
Allison Valles, an accounting major from Texas and a member of the golf team, said that the fence does more than pose a threat to her favorite activity.
“UTB is trying to portray an image of bringing everybody together, but we would have this wall between us,” Valles said.
(Posted on July 2, 2008)
Comments
“Binational” - but whose taxes built the campus and underwrite part of the cost for every student who attends?
Posted by at 6:29 PM on July 2
I was not aware publically-funded universities were entitled to enact their own foreign policies. Perhaps I am mistaken, but this is why I thought we have an elected government.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 6:53 PM on July 2
Public funding means my tax dollars. If I want to support a foreign university (which I don’t), I’ll write a check.
Posted by at 8:31 PM on July 2
Great. Students at the U of T/Brownsville should therefore ask the Mexican gov’t to pay their tuition. And of course I know graduates will be happy to work for Pesos in their sunny nation.
Posted by gg at 8:32 PM on July 2
To the U. of T., all I can do is repeat a South Russian colloquialism: “Tought shiezekie, Y’all.” The University of Texas in Austin happens to be the employer of that racebaiting Mexican, Jose Angel Gutierrez. A man openly urging the killing of Anglos.
I did send the good perfessor an email bck then to which he regrettably never replied. I invited him to feel free to come for my head, but to bring 25 amigos with him. That I consider my life worth 25 Mexican lives in an even exchange. Maybe the good Tex-Mex perfesser has a bit of a problem understanding OUR language… which would explain why he never responded, much less came to visit me. But for me, I simply can’t be bothered to learn Spanglish or whatever the illegals speak.
Posted by Fed Up at 9:16 PM on July 2
Does this university get funding from an American state, or Mexico? Once Mexico starts kicking in money, then I’ll take heed.
Posted by Question Diversity at 10:52 PM on July 2
A simple compromise. Just demolish the half of the university of US soil and use bulldozers to push the debris onto the mexican side. Then build the fence as planned.
Problem solved.
Posted by at 11:25 PM on July 2
“Some students said they fear the fence will send the wrong message … .”
No, a very tall, strong, well-lit and guarded fence sends exactly the right message: The U.S.A. is a First World, sovereign country whose European-derived culture is incompatible with the corrupt, impoverished, overpopulated, uneducated Third World country known as Mexico.
An analogy: What would you do if a foreigner of another race, language and culture appeared on your doorstep and said he will call you a RACIST unless you share your land with him, provide free schooling and lunches K-12 for his kids, with food stamps, welfare, housing subsidies, free medical care, college scholarships, etc., and require he be given special minority status with all sorts of media coddling and AA tender loving care, with you forever viewed as the mean bad guy for not doing more?
Mexico is using our naive white altruism in order to expand her territory and for billions of dollars in “free” (for them, not for us) social services.
Losing huge portions of California, Texas and Arizona to Mexico is too high a price to pay just so unscrupulous employers can hire Mexicans for less than minimum wage. Politicians, please wake up and protect America from conquerors without and traitors within!
Posted by at 12:06 AM on July 3
I think they should put that fence up and cut through that campus like a hot knife through butter and then teach the students about boundaries and what happens when you violate them.
Posted by Unemployed WASP at 2:07 AM on July 3
If I were a betting woman, I would say approximately 95% of the students at UT Brownsville are of Mexican ethnicity, while 4% are whites with relatives married to Mexicans, and 1% are Others. Naturally, 99% of this group has a vested interest slanted toward MEXICO!
Posted by at 3:04 AM on July 3
I continue to be amazed by the leaders of a superpower who are paralyzed with fear of a corrupt, violent and vile country and its people who just walk into our nation and colonize it. I’d love to know if it’s power, votes or money? Or perhaps all three?
What happened to patriotic men and woman who made this nation what it was until the pro-illegals took over? I’ve lived long enough to be revolted by our leaders who are so willing to sell out this once-proud nation and well as their own souls.
Posted by June at 9:30 AM on July 3
Well, simply build the fence north of the campus. Big deal!
Posted by Alan Andrews at 12:02 PM on July 3
so the university has a binational mission. let it find funding from Mexico and El Salvador. There are two nations which really value education: look at the reverence for learning their drunk immigrants have!
Posted by at 12:16 PM on July 3
“Losing huge portions of California, Texas and Arizona to Mexico is too high a price to pay just so unscrupulous employers can hire Mexicans for less than minimum wage. Politicians, please wake up and protect America from conquerors without and traitors within!”
It’s the nuevo rich who are doing this. Small business owners. The rich rich, at the head of our biggest companies, are fighting a losing war in the global economy. They can’t win. America has too much diversity and the American worker isn’t worth a dime. Well, that was a bit redundant. Saying America has too much diversity explains it all right there.
Posted by at 12:50 PM on July 3
>>>What happened to patriotic men and woman who made this nation what it was until the pro-illegals took over?
That MARXIST philosphy we’ve had crammed down our collective throats under the guise of political correctness. PLUS the demand by corporate and business entities to get unlimited access to cheap (illegal immigrant) labor.
Now if you dare speak out agains the endless wrong-doings of Blacks or Hispanics, you’re called a bigot, a racist, a lot of other names. The very terms “racist” or “racism” have lost any real meaning. Being now used to insult anyone who’s thinking is different or otherwise not agreeable with you.
We even have that annual circus act called “Black History Month” which tries to stuff a parodied rewriting of history down our throats. (As if Blacks prior to 1492 had EVER amounted to anything on their own efforts.) Even slavery was blamed entirely on Whites. Never mind that Black coastal tribes got very wealthy by capturing and selling their inland kin to slaver traders. But all those inconvenient truths — highly unsavory to people — have become replaced with POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. Meaning we either allow another million or so Mexicans walk into our country yearly to become a burden on White taxpayers and citizens — or we get called bigotted anti-Hispanic racists, right?
Posted by Fed Up at 1:40 PM on July 3
Anonymous wrote:
It’s the nuevo rich who are doing this. Small business owners. The rich rich, at the head of our biggest companies, are fighting a losing war in the global economy. They can’t win. America has too much diversity and the American worker isn’t worth a dime. Well, that was a bit redundant. Saying America has too much diversity explains it all right there.
I think they have another reason for supporting open borders:
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_9743403
That’s their dope supply.
Posted by Question Diversity at 1:55 PM on July 3
Perspective of an old Anglo from the Rio Grande Valley (El Valle)
Many Americans do not realise that the RGV is a huge urban area stretching from Brownsville to Rio Grande City (100+ miles) which has nearly 2,000,000 people on the U.S. side alone. Yes, I do long for the old days when we were just a string of small towns but those times are long gone. We also have several hundred thousands of “Winter Texans” who come here every fall from the northern states, Canada, and Europe to enjoy our great climate and friendly people.
The RGV is in many ways already a part of Mexico. Ethnically I am part of a TINY minority (WASP). Illegal immigration has really lowered the quality of life for ALL the Valley’s citizens
by overwhelming our schools, hospitals, housing, and personal safety. So many come across to deliver their babies then end up living in Sec. 8 housing, getting food stamps, Medicaid and all the other fine benefits we so generously offer. Contrary to popular opinion, some “mojados” have no more desire to work than others who view welfare and foo stamps as a permanent lifestyle.
The HUGE majority of our citizens have come here legally (some families were here when this really was Mexico) and are the most industrious, honest, caring people in the world. The patriotism and love of this country puts that of many Anglos to shame. RGV soldiers have died in large numbers in most of our wars…including our current adventure in Iraq.
As for a border wall through this area…total absurdity! To do so will merely turn over thousands of acres of our rapidly-shrinking agricultural land to the corrupt Mexican Government. If we can’t (or WON’T) defend a river, what makes one think we will defend a silly wall?
We aren’t lacking a wall. We lack WILL!
Posted by at 2:21 PM on July 3
“School officials say it would make a mockery of the very mission of the university: promoting close ties between the U.S. and Mexico.”
For years now “school officials” have been gripped by a confused idea of why they are being paid, thhinking that their function is for purposes other than teaching subjects necessary for the education of students who pay them to do just that.
Training centers should be set up throughout the country where these people are required to go every five years in order for a therapist to explain to them what their purpose in the field of education amounts to and why they are drawing a salary.
Since they are beset with the idea that it is up to them to take on the pursuit of following one or another of their kooky agendas, much patience and effort will be necessary to put them back into a sane mode of thinking.
Sometimes anti-psychotic drugs will have to be used on the hard cases; other times tranquilizers, anti-depressants and the like, will have to be employed. It might even be possible in some cases, where the advocate isn’t too far gone, that reason and cold hard logic might be sufficient to bring him/her back to reality.
But, whatever might be the case, academia will continue to drift further downwards into its pit of abject degeneration if we don’t take steps to try to keep these people from causing so much harm, and preventing them from continued blatant dereliction of duty.
Right now they’re confused and need our help. Wouldn’t it be callous of us if we turned our backs on them and let them continue to live in their perverted worlds of fantasy?
We have a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, (ASPCA) yet we don’t have a society for the healing of deranged academics. (SHDA). Are we going to advance or fall to third world status? It’s up to us. They need our help, now more than ever.
Posted by ice at 2:50 PM on July 3
Most universities in the U.S. are part of the globalist agenda, and only from this perspective can their policies make sense to traditional Americans.
Posted by Bobby at 2:21 AM on July 5
Currently reading “God’s Middle Finger-Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Nevada” by Richard Grant.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wonders if the Mexican culture, society, etc are compatible with us, and if the billions poured into Mexico will make a thimbles full of difference in the war on drugs.
The short answer? A resounding HELL NO.
Sealing off this festering pustule of a 3rd world country that is Mexico from the United States, with controlled access from either side, only seems like a sensible, first line approach to me.
That is likely why the fedgov has been dragging their feet to get it done.
Posted by Superman at 9:11 AM on July 5
The politicians who voted for the Secure Fence Act were primarily interested in the symbolism of a wall, not its substance, otherwise they would have checked to see if the original San Diego border wall had worked. In fact, it hadn’t. The Congressional Research Service concluded that the border wall “did not have a discernible impact on the influx of unauthorized aliens coming across the border in San Diego.” Recent Border Patrol statistics bear this conclusion out. Fiscal year 2007 saw a 7% increase in illegal crossings in the San Diego sector. In contrast, during the same year crossings border-wide dropped by 20%. The Del Rio sector, which like the rest of Texas east of El Paso has never had a wall, saw a 46% drop. The unwalled Rio Grande Valley saw a 34% drop, bringing illegal entries in that sector to a 15 year low. Even Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff recognized the border wall’s ineffectiveness, saying, “I think the fence has come to assume a certain kind of symbolic significance which should not obscure the fact that it is a much more complicated problem than putting up a fence which someone can climb over with a ladder or tunnel under with a shovel.”
Posted by No Border Wall at 11:53 PM on July 5
As for a border wall through this area…total absurdity! To do so will merely turn over thousands of acres of our rapidly-shrinking agricultural land to the corrupt Mexican Government. If we can’t (or WON’T) defend a river, what makes one think we will defend a silly wall?
We aren’t lacking a wall. We lack WILL!
History has shown what happens to the defenders at a river when the enemy gets a beachead on YOUR side of the river, in every case I know of, the war was lost by the defenders.
Posted by Skip at 6:34 AM on July 6
I think a wall is a waste of time, too. More for show than anything else. Otherwise, real thought and real planning would have gone into strong, functional, aesthetic construction that would have been started back in 2001. Instead of this ugly, flimsy, hastily slapped together eyesore in the election year of 2008.
I think we could halt the illegal invasion tomorrow if we eliminated all incentives to coming here by making it impossible for them to be hired or housed or serviced in any way. We need to come down hard on employers who hire them. We need to cut off federal funding to any state that allows sanctuary cities. Churches that offer sanctuary need to be shut down. Citizens involved in aiding and abetting illegal aliens need to be arrested and fined. No public services should be given to them whether they have children who are born here or not.
We could further shut off the tap by offering up one major disincentive. Imprisonment and being put to work on chain gangs to pay for their keep with sentences being lengthened every time they are caught. The farmers then could contract with the prisons for convict labor. After all, they are all only here “to work,” aren’t they?
Last of all, we could end a lot of street crime tomorrow if we just legalized drugs and allowed American pharmaceutical companies to sell them. The drugs could be taxed for revenue and we wouldn’t have to worry about people supporting their habit by trying to hook other people onto drugs.
Posted by at 10:55 AM on July 8