Controversial border fence hot issue in Texas primary

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AFP) — If it can be smuggled or dumped across the US-Mexico border, Ray Loop has probably seen it turn up on his South Texas farm: Bags of dope, Chinese immigrants, dead bodies, you name it.

But Loop says he is facing his biggest threat ever, not from illegal activity but from the government's proposed solution to it: a massive border fence that would cut right through his property and leave him in what he calls a "no-man's land."

Now Loop has joined a growing resistance to the controversial project, which has sparked a heated debate in Washington and, more recently, on the presidential campaign trail.

The renewed attention has fueled hopes in South Texas that the next president will either scale back or torpedo plans for the massive...