Crowds turn out for border fence rally

DHS fields hundreds of comments in McAllen
James Osborne
December 11, 2007 - 9:36PM

McALLEN — College students mixed with politicians; environmental activists applauded businessmen.

Hundreds of people turned out at the McAllen Convention Center on Tuesday night to protest the proposed border fence, just as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was staging a public forum down the hall.

“America needs real solutions. We don’t need a false sense of security from a non-continuous, 700-mile fence,” McAllen Mayor Richard Cortez told the crowd of about 500 protesters.

“They say it’ll slow (illegal border crossers) down by three to four minutes. I heard someone say that’s like building a multi-billion dollar speed bump.”

After the protest a number of the demonstrators made their way over to the forum — which addressed Homeland Security’s environmental impact study for the fence — to file their official objections. More than 200 people filed written or oral comments with the government, according to Don Beckham, a consultant to Homeland Security.

Americans legally in Mexico would be arrested for such a protest in Mexico and yet Mexicans, legal and illegal, feel they have the right to criticize a government and a country that has given them what their own country never could - freedom and prosperity.