Loop and his family reside on farmland settled by his grandfather almost a century ago near the U.S.-Mexico border. But their property is being cut off from the rest of the country by the government’s new border fence, which is slicing through Loop’s homestead and a few others living near the Rio Grande River.
Homeland security built the fence through these properties because a water treaty with
Mexico bars any construction closer to the river, which serves as the border between the two nations. In some places in Texas the fence is more than a mile from the border.
Once the government completes the fence, the Loops will have to use a secret code in order to pass through motorized gates being installed by Homeland Security. Loop and others in his situation worry that that the existence of a gate with a pass code could actually make them less secure because they could be targets of smugglers and others attempting to cross the border illegally.
“I’ll have to ask permission from the government to live my life,” Loop told the
Texas Monthly. “I’m sick to my stomach about this, that as Americans this is happening to us,” said Loop’s mother, Debbie, in an interview with
Texas Co-op Power.
Another victim of the border fence is the
Lennox Foundation Southwest Preserve, home to the rare sabal palm tree. Most of the preserve, run by The Nature Conservancy, is in the no-man’s land between the fence and the border.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
If a Tree Falls in the Valley: The Sabal Palm and the Border Fence (by Clay Carrington, Nature Conservatory)