Posted on 12/09/2007 11:26:45 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
In late November, two men knocked on the door of Dr. Eloisa Tamez’s office at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, and asked for permission to survey her property in El Calaboz, a rural community that shadows the Rio Grande 10 miles west of Brownsville.
The men, from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, had previously informed Tamez, 72, that her land was on the path of the proposed border wall. Now they wanted consent to enter, survey and store equipment on her property for 12 months.
All they needed, they told her, was a signature. She refused to sign.
“I will protect this land just like my ancestors did,” she said.
The proposed site of the border wall would leave the majority of her land on the south side of the barrier.
Since 1784, Tamez’s family has occupied the same tract of land in El Calaboz, which has changed only marginally since its establishment as fertile ranchland. During those nearly 230 years, unexpected visits from land surveyors have become something of a historical inevitability.
The stretch of land in El Calaboz — which was established by the San Pedro de Carricitos Land Grant from the King of Spain — was surveyed and adjudicated by Spain in the 1780s, by Mexico in the 1820s, and by the United States in the 1850s.
Each generation of El Calaboz’s landowners showed visiting politicians their deeds to the property, pointed out the thriving crops and the ease with which they used the river to irrigate their land.
The land survived each inspection, and was maintained under the discretion of three countries in a 70-year period.
(Excerpt) Read more at brownsvilleherald.com ...
Interesting Texas history.
“All lands are belong to me” SCOTUS
I definitely believe in property rights. I also believe in the Border Fence. Why not circumvent the property, either to the north or the south, of those who have valid objections to the Fence’s crossing their property?
Too bad they can’t put the fence down the border line...... the middle of the Rio Grande.
wonder if Galen Greaser is a hispanic
So, Spain “surveyed” this part of the SW ?
The problem I see is that the area they are surveying for the border fence is anywhere from hundreds to thousands of feet inside the US border. The fence should be as exactly on the border as possible.
But if the wall is built to the north of the levee — as officials have told landowners it will be — fair market value will not satisfy Benavidez, 76, and her husband, Jose, 80.
“We have four cows that we keep on the south side of the levee,” she said, “and Jose tends to them a few times every day. He takes pride in taking care of the cows.”
Oh okay, we wont build the Border Fence then! /s
the area between the rio bravo and the fence will be called the DMZ.
Very interesting. The Spanish Borderlands form a part of our history that is not very well known. I live in North Florida, and of course we were under Spain (except for a brief British period) until 1821, and the Spanish trail that led inland, following along the border, started here.
Legitimate use of eminent domain if you ask me. Not building a shopping center or something.
No it should be as close as possible while staying out of the flood plain - hence just inside the woman’s levee. Lets not put up a fence that gets swept away when we have a wet spring. We don’t want a wall we have to perpetually rebuild due to hubris on our part.
I can see that they may not want to put the fence in the middle of the river, and no doubt the environmentalists would scream if they put it right along the banks.
But . . . .
As I understand it, when you put up a fence along a property line, after a certain number of years it defines the property line. If you put it up several feet or more on your side of the line, you risk giving your neighbor the property you fail to fence.
He uses it for a certain number of years, and then he has a claim to own it, under the adverse property law we just saw abused in Texas.
It wouldn’t be beyond a good engineer to put the fence in the middle of the river, for that matter, would it? with maybe some backups on our side? I don’t see why we should hand over what might amount to hundreds of square miles of property to Mexico as a reward for their constant violation of our border.
Then the lawyers get involved (who could anticipate that?), with the intent of backdoor blocking the security system. Oh, you want secure borders? Sorry, those who want the illegals here can block you without recourse.
The wall would have already been built if it were as important as a new shopping center. :0)
Texas has the longest border with Mexico of any state.
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