A Thursday morning meeting between representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Border Patrol with South Laredo river front property owners was once again closed to the media, property owners who were not specifically summoned to the meeting, and a staff member of the City of Laredo Engineering Department.
The City’s holdings on the river are extensive, including the five contiguous miles from Laredo College to Slaughter Park and other tracts.
The substance of the meeting at the South Laredo Border Patrol station on U.S. Hwy. 83 South mirrored that of Wednesday’s meeting with North Laredo property owners — to make a pitch for Right of Entry (ROE) contracts to enable Corps of Engineer surveyors and engineers to begin planning for the location of the wall and its construction.
Those turned away from the meeting and entry through the doors of the USBP station included landowners Melissa Cigarroa, Elsa Hull, and John Miller, and journalist Julia Wallace of The Laredo Morning Times.
Among the handful of South Laredoans who did have a seat at the table were Sister María Teresa Grajeda, director of the Sacred Heart Childrens Home, which owns about 60 acres on the river and has been in operation there since 1965; ranch owner David Acevedo; and developer Richard Hachar.
THE ACEVEDO RANCH
Acevedo, who manages a family-owned 180-acre tract with his brothers Horacio and Javier, said the land of the Acevedo Ranch has been in agricultural production for four generations, dating back to the lifetime of their grandfather Carlos Acevedo and their father Horacio Acevedo Sr.
“Our concerns all have to do with water and livestock — our cattle drink from the river, our pump draws from the river, and we raise forage for cattle.,” Acevedo said, adding, “I have memories of being in the river as a child helping to clean the pump out and getting it going again.”
He said the ranch has been home to many Acevedo family members, a piece of land far more valuable to the family’s history than real estate. “About a hundred years,” he said.
Acevedo said the Thursday morning meeting was “cordial,” but that the salient message from the government was to get landowners to agree to the Right of Entry.
“If you give them permission with the ROE, things go to evaluation and negotiation for the property they need. Say no, and it goes the legal route through attorneys, theirs and yours. They want 150 feet of your land, or more if it is in a flood plain, which our property is,” he said.
“We were told they take every landowner’s situation under consideration, and that in some cases cameras and sensors will suffice, but I don’t believe that. I am all for border security. I am for bridges, not walls. We will never sign,” Acevedo said resolutely.
SACRED HEART CHILDRENS HOME
“We have been in Laredo since 1907,” said director Sister María Teresa Grajeda of the order of the Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Poor. “We moved to these 62 acres on the river in 1965 from the old facility on a city block at Guadalupe and Seymour. This had been Mr. Johnson’s citrus farm that produced oranges, lemons, tangerines, and grapefruit.”
She said that occasionally she sees immigrants moving quickly across the open expanse of the grounds of the Hwy. 83 facility. “They bother no one. They don’t want to be visible. They ask for nothing,” she continued.
Sister María Teresa referred to the “uncertainty” of the times. “’There’s a lot we don’t know about these times. In this country we have always given a hand to those in need and to be humane to those who come here to escape violence or pobreza, those who come here to work to feed their children. God does not abandon them,” she said.
Of the meeting, she recounted, “They said for sure they will build the wall, and that even if we don’t agree to the Right of Entry, they are going to take the property.”
There is much to consider, she said, adding that the Home’s board will decide on the Right of Entry matter.
“What are we going to do to get to our pumps on the river to start them?” she asked.
(Landowners who seek pro bono legal counsel for Right of Entry documents can call the Alamo, Texas office of the Texas Civil Rights Project at (956) 787-8171, Ext. 125.)
I’ve been in five European cities in the last twenty days. I’ve met many fine people who, upon finding out where I live, invariably say “Oh! The wall and the egoistic man with no conscience !”
No WALL!