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Offbeat FYI: Eminent domain isn't just for freeways
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To continue my series of offbeat FYI posts (which cover topics that are very loosely associated with Pasadena), here is a little two-sense inspired by the long-lived debate surrounding the Interstate 710 Freeway extension that affects Pasadena and, to a greater extent, South Pasadena. The extension of such a freeway requires a process of eminent domain, or the seizing of private property for the construction of infrastructure such as freeways, schools, and hospitals. As expected, such seizures of land are not without controversy, especially if they include the reclamation of hundreds of homes to make way for something as massive as a ten-lane interstate.
But even something as controversial as the number 710 seems to pale in comparison to what I watched on TV the other day. I watched an episode of PBS' NOW reporting on the new $46 billion US-Mexico 18ft high border fence that's being erected since Congress passed the Secure Fence Act in 2006. The border certainly raises questions about human rights and whether it will be effective in its purpose of reducing undocumented immigration. But this TV special covers how the wall affects the lives of many American citizens.
In California and Arizona, the wall has been constructed on government owned land, but in Texas, residents own land all the way up to the Rio Grande. Rather than build the wall directly adjacent to the river, Homeland Security is building the wall up to two miles away from the river, leaving over 1000 acres of US soil "behind" the border. The path of this fence will cut through many properties and in many cases wall off entire homes from the rest of the nation. The wall even bisected the University of Texas at Brownsville campus (massive protests by students, faculty and community members eventually diverted the wall away, but the rest of the plan remains).
Of course, the government seizes private property quite often to build infrastructure such as freeways, airports, schools, and hospitals. This situation is more that that, though. Americans are effectively being walled off from their own country. When reporters interviewed residents, they were asking remarkable questions, such as how they were supposed to access hospitals or grocery stores with the wall in the way. Homeland security responded by saying that they would install doors with surveillance cameras and "keypads" for Americans to cross the border. They then went on to state that those affected would have to make sacrifices for the safety of the entire country.
Regardless of what prejudices I may have about the border or Texas residents for that matter, I believe that this is a complete violation of civil rights and freedoms. I thought I was watching an Onion video, but unfortunately, this was actually happening.
What do you think about this border project? Feel free to discuss in the comments section below.
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