The following article by Kiah Collier and Julian Aguilar of the Texas Tribune and T. Christian Miller with ProPublica was posted on their website December 29, 2017. Illustrations by Susie Cagle are special to ProPublica.
EDINBURG, TEXAS — A decade ago, Congress gave officials at the Department of Homeland Security a year to build 60 miles of fence in the Rio Grande Valley to protect the Texas-Mexico border.
They faced determined resistance. Political leaders denounced the border fence as wasteful and ineffective. Landowners refused to sell their property for its construction. Environmentalists argued it would slice up habitat for endangered species in one of the most biodiverse regions in the country. Continue reading “How a Local Bureaucrat Made Millions Amid the Rush to Build a Border Fence”