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Farmers from the Rio Grande Valley told a national trade publication that they are concerned that the construction of the border fence and levees could cut off their access to the Rio Grande.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff recently overrode more than 30 laws to speed the construction of the border fence.
The Farmland Protection Act, the National Historical Preservation Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act are among the suspended laws provoking anger from environmentalists.
The Packer, a newspaper for produce farmers, reported on Friday that farmers from the Rio Grande Valley are now expressing their concern and hoping doesn’t begin until after irrigation season which ends in October.
John McClung, president of the Mission-based Texas Produce Association, told The Packer that most farmers in the Rio Grande Valley believe that legal challenges on behalf of environmental groups could buy enough time to prevent any major work that would affect agriculture.
“The strategy for border fence opponents has been to dig in, resist and hopefully buy enough time for a new congress and a new administration,” he told the trade publication.
The Packer reported that Valley farmers are concerned that the wall, which has been planned in conjunction with improvements to levees along the Rio Grande, could cut off access to the river for irrigation water and to farmland.
McClung said the newspaper reported that some of the southern levees along the Rio Grande are as far as two miles north of the river. He said much of the land south of the levee is farmland.
“Thousands of acres are south of the levee, which would, if this project goes ahead, be converted to a no man’s land,” he said.
Even though Chertoff suspended laws inhibiting work on the fence, Department of Homeland Security officials still must meet with landowners before it can access funds appropriated for fence building. McClung said that hasn’t happened.
