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Ear to the Ground

U.S. Accidentally Seized Part of Mexico

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Posted on Jun 29, 2007
border
foxnews.com

It turns out that 1.5 miles of a seven-year-old border fence between the U.S. and Mexico was accidentally built between one and six feet into Mexican territory. Mexico wants it moved as soon as possible, which could cost the U.S. more than $3 million.


AP:

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said the vertical metal tubes were sunk into the ground and filled with cement along what officials firmly believed was the border. But a routine aerial survey in March revealed that the barrier protrudes into Mexico by 1 to 6 feet.

James Johnson, whose onion farm is in the disputed area, said he thinks his forefathers may have started the confusion in the 19th century by placing a barbed-wire fence south of the border. No one discovered their error, and crews erecting the barrier may have used that fence as a guideline.

“It was a mistake made in the 1800s,” Johnson said. “It is very difficult to make a straight line between two points in rugged and mountainous areas that are about two miles apart.”

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By great_satan, July 2, 2007 at 8:41 pm Link to this comment

Homeland Security is building a big fence and people still believe it is to keep Mexicans out. Ha ha! The whole immigration hullabaloo is a scam to rally middle America to demand the Berlin Wall.
  The powers that be want the Mexican influx; they are just preparing for a large shift in the economy. They’ll need all of that cheap labor to drive labor class Americans out of employment and into the military and then to replace them when the draft comes.
  Oh, but you might be able to avoid the draft by joining the DHS’ Border Patrol and keeping Americans from dodging the draft and trying to expatriate from the New American Century in general.

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By anthony bauwens, July 2, 2007 at 9:32 am Link to this comment

Maybe the President of Mexico will invite us over to help against S.A.countries before they build up???it is a vital security country!

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By Gabriel, July 2, 2007 at 9:10 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

How Shocking!!!! Just kidding. It shouldn’t come as a big surprise since the United States already owns Mexico. Just ask the rich, light skinned elitists who answer to whoever’s in the white house.

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By Hemi*, July 1, 2007 at 1:31 pm Link to this comment

#82910 by cyrena on 7/01 at 9:15 am

Bingo baby! They’re all having mai tais with a couple of Saudi Sheiks while watching the 4th of July fireworks. Can’t you just see mama Bush playing coctail waitress?

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By cyrena, July 1, 2007 at 10:15 am Link to this comment

#82867 by Hemi* on 7/01 at 5:38 am

“Yeah, Vincente Fox has it; all you have to do is find him. Just a hint between you and me, I think he has a time-share in Kennebunkport, Maine.”

Hemi*, I definitely have to agree with you on this part. Except, I don’t think it’s really a “time-share”. I think he just has his own guest quarters right there in the main-mansion at Kennebunkport, possibly in the same wing as Osama’s.

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By JT Lancer, July 1, 2007 at 10:03 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Only the brightest and best qualify for government work.

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By DennisD, July 1, 2007 at 8:14 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

$3 Million - hell, run the printing presses at the Mint another 30 seconds and throw in a 15% gratuity. I thought this was just NAFTA & CAFTA at work. Mexico gets L.A. and we get a few feet more of desert. That’s a Bu$h Inc. deal if I’ve ever heard one.

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By Toby, July 1, 2007 at 6:48 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

How could this happen?

Maybe the answer to that question is in another question.
Was the fence built by Homeland Security?

Michael Chertoff
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0329-32.htm
“Keep your eye on Michael Chertoff,” warned Elaine Cassel in June 2003 when Chertoff was appointed to the court of appeals. Cassel, an attorney who writes for Civil Liberties Watch, observed: “As bad for the law and Constitution as many of Bush’s judicial appointments are, Chertoff has been the architect of prosecutions in the ‘war on terror.’ And he may have big changes in mind for you, me, the courts, and the Constitution.”

“Despite the mounting evidence that the administration authorized torture and detained immigrants without probable cause, Chertoff has consistently defended the constitutionality of the Bush administration’s counterterrorism operations at home. In November 2001, at the time when he was directing a national dragnet that targeted the immigrant Muslim population, Chertoff told Congress: “Nobody is being held incommunicado. Nobody is being denied the right to an attorney. Nobody is being denied due process.”

OK, so he’s a liar too.

Or maybe the decision was made by one of those “Hate all Mexican” freaks that heavily populate the “Stop the illegals” movement.

Or maybe it’s just one more clear example of screw-up we see all the time.

Or ... maybe the real screw-up is the fact that “they” cant correct one of “their” mistakes without spending millions.

Or maybe this is really just one more diversion to take our minds off the really expensive, really bad stuff they do every day. [they being the fascists running this country]

Irregardless, the problem can be corrected quickly and cheaply. All they need do is call for a few “illegals” to come fix the mess. They’ll show up in droves, fix the fence and do it faster and for far less than any home-grown labor or management!

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By Hemi*, July 1, 2007 at 6:38 am Link to this comment

OK, OK! You caught us red handed. We’ll give you back your land and all those people you’re missing. A couple million people disappear and nobody notices. A couple feet of scrubland in East Podunk and you’re bent like a giant saguaro. By the way we gave you compensation for the land. Yeah, Vincente Fox has it; all you have to do is find him. Just a hint between you and me, I think he has a time-share in Kennebunkport, Maine.

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By grob, June 30, 2007 at 5:40 pm Link to this comment

Three million dollars for a lousy mile and a half.  Give me a bull dozer, and I could get rid of it in a few hours.

While we’re at it lets wall of the rest of the border. 

  What gall the Mexicans ave for complaining to us about 1 to 6 feet of territory.  Why don’t we bill them for the use of our schools and hospitals by their citizens.

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By ABC Psych, June 30, 2007 at 5:33 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

How much would a surveying team have cost us? Basic logic should have dictated that you survey before you build. Old boundary markers are frequently inaccurate.  Good Grief!!!

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By desertdude, June 30, 2007 at 4:35 pm Link to this comment

OUR INEPT GOVERNMENT AT IT’S VERY BEST. I HAVE SAID ALL ALONG THAT BUSH IS THE PERFECT EXAMPLE OF THE PETER PRINCIPAL. IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND THAT, JUST GOGGLE IT. MAYBE MORE PEOPLE WILL BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY.

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By THOMAS BILLIS, June 30, 2007 at 3:52 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I believe that is how we started and we ended up with Texas.I am not in favor of illegal immigration but Mexico is the loser.The most valuable commodity a country can have is a work force and Mexico is allowing those that want to work hard and get ahead to leave.Just the people we need.We in essence are robbing Mexico with their complicity.Historically these type of immigrants be it from Ireland or Italy have always made America better.

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By Chaseme, June 30, 2007 at 12:11 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Circumstances has been created to produce new contracts. The winner is…Halliburton!

Halliburton hires cheap Mexican labor to fix the problem and pocket the profits.

Halliburton billions—- American taxpayer zip! Cheap Mexican laborers—close the gate behind you.

The rules of this game has been the same for years and the money makers are making even more money, while the rest of us…well we say we want PEACE, but none of us want to change our own minds.

What language are your tears? What language are your fears? Is our love enough?

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By Broderick, June 30, 2007 at 11:43 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

If we’re wanting to build this huge gate between Mexico and America to keep the illegal immigrants out.

Who’s going to build the gate?

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By Minuteman, June 30, 2007 at 11:18 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Land grab?  It’s 1 to 6 feet of error, people.  Don’t be silly.

Cyrena, Neither Columbus nor later European settlers of the American colonies were “illegal immigrants” as there were no immigration laws until long after the British colinies were founded. Prior to that, there was no nation state in existence in North America at the time to make such laws.  Most native American tribes made no significant land claims at all.

All occupants of North America are either imgrants or descended from immigrants, including ‘Native Americans’ or ‘American Indians’ who’s ancestors immigrated to North America from Asia earlier on.

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Requiem's avatar

By Requiem, June 30, 2007 at 11:13 am Link to this comment

$1.5M to fix a mistake involving a guesstimated acre and one half of land - used to farm onions?

Does not seem to pass the “reasonable person” test.

Now if the border were say dividing Manhattan in two it might make sense.

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By GW=MCHammered, June 30, 2007 at 11:07 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Declare victory in Iraq. Seize all of Mexico. End this era of sell-out betrayal now.

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By Dr. Knowitall, PhD, PhD, June 30, 2007 at 9:42 am Link to this comment

If Bush and congress didn’t need Mexican undocumenteds to distract voters from important issues, they could, like some here have suggested re: America’s penchant for land-grabbing, just move the wall about three thousand miles further south and send the border patrol and INS home.  Really, doesn’t this make perfect sense?

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By anonymous, June 30, 2007 at 7:51 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Isn’t this the same as what the Israelis do?

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By great_satan, June 30, 2007 at 2:13 am Link to this comment

Why does it cost $3,000,000 to build 1.5 miles of fence? I wonder how much the land itself would cost? Maybe .1% of that?
  Why does Mexico really care about that particular stretch of fence anyway? Its their fence now anyway.  They could just keep putting little gates in it or hang a “No Gringos Allowed” sign facing the States.
  It just shows yet another glimpse the dark, corrupt, yet ever disturbingly humorous, absurdity that now pervades every aspect of just about everything to do with federal processes of any sort.
  Very small, largely invaluable piece of land.

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By Chris, June 29, 2007 at 11:49 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

You said $3 million? Hah! Why don’t they just take about 45 minutes out of one day, from the correlating amount of money we would have spend for that 45 minutes of time for that day in Iraq, and divert it to moving the fence?

If they are unloading so much money over in Iraq that they can completely loose $8 billion, they could easily take off 45 minutes from the Iraq war and hand over $3 million.

Halliburton won’t even notice it’s missing.

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By cyrena, June 29, 2007 at 11:05 pm Link to this comment

I’m with Kevin, this was no “accident”. Christopher Colombus, (bringing over the first of our “illegal aliens” might have been an “accident”, but nothing since has been.

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By Hemi*, June 29, 2007 at 8:39 pm Link to this comment

Where the hell are we going to get the manpower to do that?

Ooooops, my bad!

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By Minuteman, June 29, 2007 at 8:31 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The official US response to Mexico should be “Yeah, so what? You spew millions of illegal aliens over our borders and then have the gall to complain about a few feet of deviation in a fence?”

The US should annex another 5 miles of Mexico below the border and put a second fence there. Mexico is criminally complicit in the violation of US sovereignty and border security, and the Mexican Army and Federal Police are major drug trafficing forces in the region.

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By kevin99999, June 29, 2007 at 7:46 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Accidently? Tbe land grab is nohing new to the United States.

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