WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:02.400 And all of a sudden, the government was going to 2 00:00:02.400 --> 00:00:07.960 build eighteen foot high seal wall between US and our neighbor. 3 00:00:08.360 --> 00:00:11.680 It didn't make sense to me at any level. 4 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:19.640 From futro media and PRX, It's Latino USA. I'm Maria 5 00:00:19.680 --> 00:00:23.919 ino Josa. Today the fight led by a pioneering Latina 6 00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:29.400 against the US government. Her mission stoped border wall construction 7 00:00:29.720 --> 00:00:40.040 on her university campus. This October will mark fifteen years 8 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:45.000 since President George W. Bush signed the Secure Fence Act 9 00:00:45.320 --> 00:00:46.720 of two thousand and six. 10 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:49.120 The bill I'm about to sign as an important step 11 00:00:49.760 --> 00:00:50.839 in our nation's. 12 00:00:50.479 --> 00:00:54.440 Efforts to secure our border and reform our immigration system. 13 00:00:55.040 --> 00:00:59.960 Congress approved the Act with bipartisan support, authorizing nearly seven 14 00:01:00.040 --> 00:01:03.800 hundred miles of new barrier along the southwestern border with Mexico. 15 00:01:04.200 --> 00:01:07.040 Up until this point, just a few dozen miles of 16 00:01:07.080 --> 00:01:10.600 borderwall had been built, and that happened under Democratic President 17 00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:15.800 Bill Clinton. Under President George W. Bush, the Secure Fence 18 00:01:15.880 --> 00:01:20.000 Act would focus on militarizing the nearly two thousand mile 19 00:01:20.080 --> 00:01:25.399 long border with Mexico. The Act allowed vehicle barriers, checkpoints, 20 00:01:25.440 --> 00:01:30.560 increased uses of satellites, cameras, and other technologies. Order property 21 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:34.400 owners would soon receive letters from the federal government asking 22 00:01:34.440 --> 00:01:38.440 them for permission to enter and survey their land. This 23 00:01:38.520 --> 00:01:41.920 would lead to legal battles and property seizures, with many 24 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:47.240 of these moving into new administrations today. Reporter Aaron Nelson 25 00:01:47.360 --> 00:01:51.120 takes us to a university in Brownsville, Texas, where doctor 26 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:55.000 Juliet Garcia led a legal battle against border wall construction. 27 00:01:55.720 --> 00:01:58.600 This case as a reminder of the fights many continued, 28 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:03.360 a wage against an opponent almost impossible to defeat. Here's 29 00:02:03.400 --> 00:02:04.520 Aaron Nelson. 30 00:02:06.040 --> 00:02:10.240 One overcast morning in late spring, doctor Juliet Garcia stands 31 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:13.840 at the walled entrance of a defunct golf course. Overgrown 32 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:17.080 palm fronds obscure the welcome sign where the University of 33 00:02:17.160 --> 00:02:20.600 Texas Brownsville golf team was headquartered. The golf course was 34 00:02:20.639 --> 00:02:24.560 popular with retirees and young golfers, hosting tournaments for local 35 00:02:24.600 --> 00:02:27.920 high schools and countless thousands of rounds of golf every year. 36 00:02:28.440 --> 00:02:30.720 It is part of what we're trying to build here. 37 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:34.239 But that's gone now. What lies beyond the wall today 38 00:02:34.360 --> 00:02:37.399 is a no man's land, an outcome of a Goliath 39 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:41.200 versus David kind of battle. This story begins in late 40 00:02:41.240 --> 00:02:44.000 two thousand and seven, a few months after the Secure 41 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:48.239 Fence Act became law, the federal government targeted UTB's land 42 00:02:48.280 --> 00:02:50.960 and other private land to try and build a border wall. 43 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:55.040 As president of the university, doctor Garcia was forced to 44 00:02:55.040 --> 00:02:57.799 step away from the classrooms and into the forefront of 45 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:01.320 an unexpected fight to protect the un institution she had 46 00:03:01.320 --> 00:03:02.040 helped create. 47 00:03:02.680 --> 00:03:05.560 Nobody wants to take on an issue like this, you know. 48 00:03:06.120 --> 00:03:10.280 I mean, my job was to hire faculty, not fight 49 00:03:10.440 --> 00:03:11.840 Department of Homeland Security. 50 00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:14.760 But did she really have any other option? 51 00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:17.840 I never imagined that we could have taken any other 52 00:03:18.160 --> 00:03:20.840 path than what we did. And we didn't choose the fight. 53 00:03:20.919 --> 00:03:24.720 It chose us. But once it did, then we had 54 00:03:24.760 --> 00:03:26.920 no other choice but then to take it on. 55 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:30.120 In truth, she had been fighting most of her life. 56 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:34.040 Juliet Garcia was born in Brownsville in the late nineteen forties. 57 00:03:34.320 --> 00:03:37.240 The city sits at the southernmost tip of Texas, across 58 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:40.560 from Mexico, Yet the line between here and there was 59 00:03:40.600 --> 00:03:43.080 a fluid thing, like the Rio Grande as it cuts 60 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:45.960 a winding path through the fertile soil. She was a 61 00:03:46.040 --> 00:03:46.560 child of. 62 00:03:46.480 --> 00:03:48.600 The border, and so the border for us has always 63 00:03:48.600 --> 00:03:51.240 been a blurred kind of place to live. You know, 64 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:55.280 we learned very young to to convert to bessos to dollars, 65 00:03:55.720 --> 00:03:59.760 and centigrade to fahrenheit and guilos to pounds. 66 00:04:00.040 --> 00:04:03.920 Garcia's passion for academics started at an early age. She 67 00:04:04.200 --> 00:04:06.720 and her two older brothers aspired to go to college, 68 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:10.280 which in the late sixties, she says, meant having to 69 00:04:10.360 --> 00:04:14.280 leave the border. Garcia majored in speech in English at 70 00:04:14.280 --> 00:04:17.680 the University of Houston. That's where she discovered her passion 71 00:04:17.720 --> 00:04:21.360 for public speaking and joined the debate team. Growing up 72 00:04:21.400 --> 00:04:24.880 with brothers had taught her how to play, fight, make up, 73 00:04:24.960 --> 00:04:27.599 and then keep on playing. In college, she would do 74 00:04:27.640 --> 00:04:30.640 the same, but to fight different kinds of battles. 75 00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:33.400 I had grown up living with guys and knew how 76 00:04:33.400 --> 00:04:36.760 to deal with men very comfortably. So I was more practiced, 77 00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:40.880 perhaps in that environment than other women might have been. 78 00:04:41.320 --> 00:04:44.200 And so management and leadership and hire ed is what 79 00:04:44.440 --> 00:04:45.400 drew me forward. 80 00:04:45.720 --> 00:04:49.320 After receiving her bachelor's degree, she moved back to South Texas, 81 00:04:49.640 --> 00:04:52.720 then traveled back to Houston to pursue a master's and 82 00:04:52.760 --> 00:04:55.760 eventually a doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin. 83 00:04:56.320 --> 00:04:59.160 While away, the border was never far from her thoughts 84 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:09.440 or heart. She took a job back in Brownsville at 85 00:05:09.520 --> 00:05:15.040 Texas Southmost College TSC. She taught speech, communication and linguistics. 86 00:05:15.440 --> 00:05:18.880 Her career was taking off, but she was frustrated. She 87 00:05:18.920 --> 00:05:22.280 wanted to bring the kind of academic opportunities she experienced 88 00:05:22.279 --> 00:05:24.920 in Houston and Austin back to her hometown. 89 00:05:25.160 --> 00:05:27.680 I kept thinking, why don't we have that in the valley. 90 00:05:27.800 --> 00:05:29.719 I mean, how many people could go away to go 91 00:05:29.760 --> 00:05:32.919 to school. Not many, or mobile, and certainly don't have 92 00:05:32.960 --> 00:05:35.520 the resources to be able to get scholarships. 93 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:39.120 Doctor Garcia concluded that TSC needed to think bigger and 94 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:42.760 promised herself that she would push for change. So in 95 00:05:42.839 --> 00:05:46.440 nineteen seventy seven, when the TSC president position became vacant, 96 00:05:46.839 --> 00:05:47.480 she applied. 97 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:51.159 I was twenty eight, and I remember telling my husband 98 00:05:51.200 --> 00:05:53.159 I was going to apply for the presidency. I was 99 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:57.160 a lowly faculty member, just got and started for been 100 00:05:57.200 --> 00:06:00.440 teaching a couple of years. And he said, why are 101 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:01.800 you going to do this? And I said, I have 102 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:04.200 to signal that I can do more. And so I did, 103 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:06.760 and she failed miserably. 104 00:06:07.080 --> 00:06:10.240 Almost a decade later, in the nineteen eighties, she would 105 00:06:10.279 --> 00:06:13.240 try again and this time succeed. 106 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.760 So I became president at thirty seven and became the 107 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:21.359 first Latina in the United States to be president of 108 00:06:21.400 --> 00:06:23.600 a college or university. 109 00:06:23.720 --> 00:06:27.040 She'd achieved her goal, and in the valley. 110 00:06:27.160 --> 00:06:31.200 I never found an opportunity that was better than what 111 00:06:31.320 --> 00:06:33.440 I could do here. There are very few people that 112 00:06:33.520 --> 00:06:36.440 want to come to the border and do the kind 113 00:06:36.440 --> 00:06:38.080 of work that we had to do, which is building 114 00:06:38.120 --> 00:06:40.040 from the ground up. In terms of higher ed. 115 00:06:40.360 --> 00:06:43.520 She began looking at how other university presidents approached the 116 00:06:43.640 --> 00:06:47.120 job and what inspired their work. She found answers when 117 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:51.120 she met Robert McKay, then president of Miami Dade College. 118 00:06:50.839 --> 00:06:53.719 And he said, well, my job is to invite into 119 00:06:53.800 --> 00:06:59.000 higher education the next wave of Native Floridians or the 120 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:01.480 next wave of people that come to our shore from 121 00:07:02.440 --> 00:07:06.760 Haiti or Cuba or wherever they come from, and open 122 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:09.479 the doors of higher education for them. And if I 123 00:07:09.560 --> 00:07:15.320 can do that really well, then they will help sustain 124 00:07:15.880 --> 00:07:19.520 our democracy. They will then sustain this kind of country 125 00:07:20.200 --> 00:07:26.200 going forward. This spoke deeper to what I was eventually 126 00:07:26.280 --> 00:07:28.440 to adopt is my own purpose. 127 00:07:28.840 --> 00:07:31.920 Doctor Garcia knew that if Brownsville was ever going to 128 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:34.640 keep its best and brightest at home, it would need 129 00:07:34.680 --> 00:07:35.559 to offer them more. 130 00:07:35.840 --> 00:07:39.320 I felt like I was a pipe piper leading people 131 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:42.320 down the wrong road, because if all I was going 132 00:07:42.360 --> 00:07:44.200 to be able to give them access to was an 133 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:47.560 associate degree, the chances of them going on to get 134 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:51.239 a back laureate was so slim nationwide, much less here. 135 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:54.600 At the time, Texas Southmost College was lending space on 136 00:07:54.600 --> 00:07:58.000 this campus to Pan American University, located about an hour 137 00:07:58.080 --> 00:08:01.520 west of Brownsville. But doctor Garcia wanted Brownsville to have 138 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:04.800 its own standalone four year college, and to accomplish that 139 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:07.840 it would need a partner. In the summer of nineteen ninety, 140 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:10.960 during the presidency of Bush Senior, a meeting was arranged 141 00:08:10.960 --> 00:08:14.360 with the chancellor of the University of Texas System, one 142 00:08:14.360 --> 00:08:16.920 of the largest systems of higher education in the country 143 00:08:16.960 --> 00:08:20.240 with more than a dozen universities and health institutions. As 144 00:08:20.280 --> 00:08:23.360 doctor Garcia remembers it, the Chancellor leaned back in his 145 00:08:23.520 --> 00:08:26.200 chair and said it would be decades before the UT 146 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:28.880 system was in a position to invest in the Rio 147 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:33.079 Grande Valley. In turn, the Texas Southmost College chairperson Mary 148 00:08:33.160 --> 00:08:34.319 Rose Cotter than us. 149 00:08:34.400 --> 00:08:37.280 Came to the edge of her chair and kind of 150 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:39.920 leaned into him, and she said, well, we don't have 151 00:08:39.920 --> 00:08:42.400 the luxury to wait twenty thirty years, So if you 152 00:08:42.400 --> 00:08:44.280 don't want to do a deal with us, I get it, 153 00:08:44.640 --> 00:08:46.839 But we're going to go and talk to somebody else. 154 00:08:46.920 --> 00:08:48.960 And she mentioned Texas A and M of course, which 155 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:51.600 is a rival, and we all froze. 156 00:08:52.040 --> 00:08:56.520 The not so disguised threat worked. Launching a standalone university 157 00:08:56.559 --> 00:09:00.480 in Brownsville had finally begun, and about a year or later, 158 00:09:00.760 --> 00:09:04.920 the University of Texas Brownsville, a partnership with Southmost College, 159 00:09:05.080 --> 00:09:10.240 sharing land, buildings and faculty, was a reality. Doctor Garcia 160 00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:13.720 would become president of UTB a few months later. Over 161 00:09:13.760 --> 00:09:17.120 the next fifteen years, the university grew at a feverish pace, 162 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:22.080 adding thousands of students, recruiting faculty, and building infrastructure, but 163 00:09:22.160 --> 00:09:27.760 the government had other plans. After the September eleventh terrorist 164 00:09:27.800 --> 00:09:30.920 attacks in two thousand and one, the voices calling to 165 00:09:30.920 --> 00:09:34.240 secure the border had become a deafening chorus, and South 166 00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:38.080 Texas was in the national spotlight. It would take five years, 167 00:09:38.200 --> 00:09:41.320 but the debate culminated with passage of the Secure Fence 168 00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:44.320 Act of two thousand and six, news that the Rio 169 00:09:44.320 --> 00:09:47.679 Grande Valley was earmarked for sections of physical barriers began 170 00:09:47.720 --> 00:09:52.400 to circulate around town. Still, for some government construction in 171 00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:55.640 their backyards seemed daunting and hard to believe. 172 00:09:56.040 --> 00:09:56.880 It was scary. 173 00:09:57.240 --> 00:10:01.360 It was very shockage to some people long here. They 174 00:10:01.360 --> 00:10:06.880 were people of poor means, veterans who were on pensions 175 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:09.760 that they were afraid to speak because they thought that, 176 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:12.760 you know it, it's the government asking us to do this. 177 00:10:13.480 --> 00:10:14.760 If I say no, am I. 178 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:15.920 Going to lose my pension? 179 00:10:16.280 --> 00:10:18.079 There was a lot of stress. 180 00:10:18.520 --> 00:10:22.640 That's e Luisa Thomas, a lifelong resident of the valley Tamez, 181 00:10:22.640 --> 00:10:24.960 lives on a small plot that was once part of 182 00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:27.880 a Spanish land grant. While the language of the Secure 183 00:10:27.960 --> 00:10:31.440 Fence Act mandated hundreds of miles of fence and specific 184 00:10:31.480 --> 00:10:35.800 areas of the border appropriations, legislation required that local authorities 185 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:39.600 and stakeholders be consulted first so that a logical argument 186 00:10:39.640 --> 00:10:42.680 could be made for final placement. About a year after 187 00:10:42.679 --> 00:10:45.720 the law went into effect in late two thousand and seven, 188 00:10:46.280 --> 00:10:49.000 Denise Gilman, a professor of law and director of the 189 00:10:49.040 --> 00:10:52.640 Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas, was approached by 190 00:10:52.640 --> 00:10:56.199 doctor Tommez's daughter, who was concerned that the federal government 191 00:10:56.280 --> 00:10:57.760 was targeting their property too. 192 00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:01.559 It became clear that the properties that were being targeted 193 00:11:01.920 --> 00:11:06.200 seemed to be those properties that were owned by smaller 194 00:11:06.440 --> 00:11:13.240 landowners Latino landowners, people who were less likely to be 195 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:16.840 able to speak out against a taking of their property 196 00:11:16.880 --> 00:11:17.960 by the federal government. 197 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:20.840 Some of the families being targeted had been in possession 198 00:11:20.840 --> 00:11:24.120 of their lands since the seventeenth century, when King Philip 199 00:11:24.120 --> 00:11:26.959 the Fifth of Spain granted ownership to their ancestors. 200 00:11:27.240 --> 00:11:30.520 It did not seem from the very beginning that the 201 00:11:30.520 --> 00:11:35.440 federal government was targeting properties in a fair way, or 202 00:11:35.480 --> 00:11:39.760 in a way that was really looking at where border 203 00:11:39.800 --> 00:11:41.840 wall would make most sense, where there would be some 204 00:11:42.040 --> 00:11:44.480 operational necessity for the border wall. 205 00:11:44.640 --> 00:11:47.600 The government's plan for fencing on the Texas Mexico border 206 00:11:47.679 --> 00:11:51.560 presented a unique challenge. Unlike states in the American Southwest, 207 00:11:51.600 --> 00:11:55.359 where a person might straddle the international line, in Texas, 208 00:11:55.679 --> 00:11:59.760 the Rio Grande is technically the international boundary. Putting up 209 00:11:59.760 --> 00:12:02.720 a bit in the river was intfeasible, and building in 210 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:06.240 the river's floodplain required approval from the joint US Mexico 211 00:12:06.360 --> 00:12:11.160 International Boundary and Water Commission a sometimes lengthy process, so 212 00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:14.200 the US government took aim at the levee system in Texas, 213 00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:18.319 more inland away from the river. Here's doctor Garcia again. 214 00:12:18.640 --> 00:12:22.960 Rivers don't run straight. Rivers curve right and weave in 215 00:12:23.040 --> 00:12:26.040 and out. A levee is more likely to be a 216 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:28.480 straight line, not a curve line. 217 00:12:28.640 --> 00:12:31.840 Farms and ranches that were established before the United States 218 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:34.880 announced itself as a country would be trapped between the 219 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:38.680 river and the fence, though still on US soil. Some 220 00:12:38.800 --> 00:12:42.720 began referring to these areas as the Mexican side. Owners 221 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:45.720 worried their properties would become no man's lands and difficult 222 00:12:45.760 --> 00:12:46.400 to access. 223 00:12:46.640 --> 00:12:50.320 In effect, the property owner was often losing the other 224 00:12:50.440 --> 00:12:52.880 side of the property on the other side of that fence. 225 00:12:53.320 --> 00:12:55.800 The Secure Fence Act called for up to a third 226 00:12:55.880 --> 00:12:59.360 of the US Mexico border to be secured, though still 227 00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:03.040 up in the air was when and where. In June 228 00:13:03.080 --> 00:13:07.280 of two thousand and seven, doctor Tony Zavaletta, a university 229 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:11.199 vice president in charge of external affairs and doctor Garcia's 230 00:13:11.240 --> 00:13:14.400 right hand person, attended a meeting with the US Customs 231 00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:18.040 and Border Protection where he received a map. It depicted 232 00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:20.720 the proposed route of the fence the government was seeking 233 00:13:20.760 --> 00:13:23.480 to build, and for which Congress was allocating one point 234 00:13:23.559 --> 00:13:24.520 two billion dollars. 235 00:13:24.800 --> 00:13:27.920 You know, I just thought these millions of dollars could 236 00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:34.520 served to upgrade colonias, educate kids, provide nutrition, healthcare, and 237 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:37.240 they were going to build put it. Put that money 238 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:43.360 into a wall, which I knew instinctively would have no effect. 239 00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:46.840 What Zavaletta, Garcia and others saw was a plan to 240 00:13:46.880 --> 00:13:50.160 erect an eighteen foot high steel barrier through campus that 241 00:13:50.200 --> 00:13:52.520 would cut off access to at least one hundred and 242 00:13:52.520 --> 00:13:56.160 sixty acres of land the university hoped to develop. Much 243 00:13:56.160 --> 00:13:59.360 of the university seven building expansion was going up mere 244 00:13:59.400 --> 00:14:02.080 feet from the levy and in the projected path of 245 00:14:02.120 --> 00:14:02.960 fence construction. 246 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:06.640 So you're not talking about building a wall out in 247 00:14:06.679 --> 00:14:09.319 the middle of nowhere. You're talking about it building it 248 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:13.320 right where people work and play and learn and live 249 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:18.439 every day. And that was what was so disruptive and 250 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:20.880 insulting about the wall. 251 00:14:21.640 --> 00:14:24.360 The university, which had grown from forty nine acres to 252 00:14:24.400 --> 00:14:28.000 more than four hundred, according to doctor Garcia, had already 253 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:31.080 broken ground on a second library, a childcare center that 254 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:34.160 would double as a Center for Early Childhood Education and 255 00:14:34.200 --> 00:14:38.120 a fine arts hall. Six months later, in December two 256 00:14:38.120 --> 00:14:41.720 thousand and seven, a letter arrived with a specific request. 257 00:14:42.040 --> 00:14:45.080 I was to sign a request for a right of entry, 258 00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:48.360 and that in that right of entry, I was giving 259 00:14:48.400 --> 00:14:50.440 them permission to come to our campus. 260 00:14:54.560 --> 00:14:58.360 Coming up on Latino, USA, Doctor Juliet Garcia takes on 261 00:14:58.440 --> 00:15:02.000 the federal government to try stop border walk construction on 262 00:15:02.040 --> 00:15:02.760 her campus. 263 00:15:03.160 --> 00:15:48.560 Stay with us, Yes, Hey, We're back. 264 00:15:49.280 --> 00:15:52.240 Before the break, doctor Julia Garcia received a letter from 265 00:15:52.280 --> 00:15:57.240 the federal government asking for permission to access her university's property. 266 00:15:57.760 --> 00:16:00.440 The government's ultimate goal would be to build a border 267 00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:03.720 wall on her campus, but doctor Garcia would not go 268 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:06.880 down without a fight. Reporter Aaron Nelson is going to 269 00:16:06.880 --> 00:16:08.680 pick up the rest of the story from here. 270 00:16:09.920 --> 00:16:13.160 The fence didn't just present an obstacle to the university's 271 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:17.240 growing footprint. It also threatened the academic culture that doctor 272 00:16:17.280 --> 00:16:22.280 Garcia had spent years cultivating, which included strengthening bonds with Mexico. 273 00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:25.960 We had prided ourselves in building a university and in 274 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:31.240 its core mission talked about blurring the borders edges and 275 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:37.440 convening cultures and monetary systems and mores and families, and 276 00:16:37.640 --> 00:16:40.320 US being the place for those convenience to occur. 277 00:16:40.920 --> 00:16:45.400 The university attracted students from Mexico, many across the International 278 00:16:45.400 --> 00:16:48.680 Bridge that connects Brownsville to Matamoros every day to attend 279 00:16:48.760 --> 00:16:52.320 class at UTB. Others had been born across the border 280 00:16:52.440 --> 00:16:55.960 and then moved to the US ugo Este. Andro Riez 281 00:16:56.080 --> 00:16:59.240 was one of the latter. He started at UTB the 282 00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:02.880 same year Secure Fence Act became law and remembers the 283 00:17:02.920 --> 00:17:05.760 over the top rhetoric over border security at the time. 284 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:08.199 It had been ratcheting up for years. 285 00:17:08.680 --> 00:17:11.800 I think things really started changing, like right after nine 286 00:17:11.840 --> 00:17:12.680 to eleven happens. 287 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:16.360 Though not a regular occurrence, Rodriguez says, it wasn't unusual 288 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:19.680 to witness border agents chasing a newly arrived immigrant through 289 00:17:19.760 --> 00:17:23.040 the Union lawn or seeing a Mexican helicopter hovering in 290 00:17:23.080 --> 00:17:26.320 the distance. There were also more border patrol agents around 291 00:17:26.359 --> 00:17:30.200 campus and the university golf course built on the hallowed 292 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:33.160 grounds of the old Fort Texas, which came under shell 293 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:36.280 fire during the Mexican American War. As the sports editor 294 00:17:36.320 --> 00:17:39.840 for the student newspaper, Rodriguez covered the university's golf team. 295 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:41.879 It started getting kind of weird, like being out in 296 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:44.119 about like there, like knowing like, hey, what if I 297 00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:45.920 show up there, Like, what's what's going to happen? 298 00:17:45.960 --> 00:17:47.359 Am I going to be mistaken for anything? 299 00:17:47.400 --> 00:17:49.960 I wouldn't say I had to fear that because in 300 00:17:50.280 --> 00:17:52.800 my head, I'm like, I'm a US citizen, a naturalite 301 00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:53.439 US citizen. 302 00:17:53.520 --> 00:17:54.159 It'll be okay. 303 00:17:54.240 --> 00:17:56.200 But there was still a little bit of an apprehension 304 00:17:56.280 --> 00:17:58.560 knowing that now it's going to become Nomadslam. 305 00:18:03.080 --> 00:18:06.199 A few days after doctor Garcia and the university received 306 00:18:06.200 --> 00:18:09.359 the letter, DHS held what it advertised as a town 307 00:18:09.400 --> 00:18:12.560 hall at the Brownsville Events Center. It was December twelfth, 308 00:18:12.600 --> 00:18:15.080 two thousand and seven, the feast day of Our Lady 309 00:18:15.080 --> 00:18:19.600 of Guadalupe, an important Catholic holiday to many Brownsville residents. 310 00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:21.200 And we figured they were doing it on that day 311 00:18:21.240 --> 00:18:24.680 because they knew people would be occupied with this religious celebration. 312 00:18:25.040 --> 00:18:27.720 Doctor Garcia was not about to miss the meeting, but 313 00:18:27.800 --> 00:18:30.320 she says she was not prepared for the intimidation that 314 00:18:30.359 --> 00:18:30.960 awaited them. 315 00:18:31.040 --> 00:18:33.199 As a matter of fact, everybody that was there was 316 00:18:33.359 --> 00:18:36.479 armed like they were going to be attacked. And we 317 00:18:36.560 --> 00:18:39.639 walked in expecting a town hall like meeting, which is 318 00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:42.240 what had been advertised, like there was no opportunity for 319 00:18:42.359 --> 00:18:44.320 us to present testimony. 320 00:18:43.840 --> 00:18:47.199 Doctor Garcia says. She remembers that she and her staff 321 00:18:47.240 --> 00:18:49.879 were told that they would be allowed to dictate or 322 00:18:49.920 --> 00:18:52.240 type out a statement for official record. 323 00:18:52.080 --> 00:18:54.560 And we were furious. I mean, that was not the 324 00:18:54.600 --> 00:18:56.440 intention of a community meeting. 325 00:18:56.640 --> 00:18:59.480 Doctor Garcia says. She led some of the audience into 326 00:18:59.520 --> 00:19:02.320 a field next to the events center, where she stood 327 00:19:02.320 --> 00:19:05.040 atop the flatbed of a pickup truck and spoke into 328 00:19:05.080 --> 00:19:08.560 a microphone, giving the testimony she had intended all along. 329 00:19:08.680 --> 00:19:10.960 But it was during that time that we were presenting 330 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:13.879 our testimony in this kind of awkward situation out in 331 00:19:13.880 --> 00:19:16.720 the field in front of the event center, that we 332 00:19:16.800 --> 00:19:19.320 also noticed that there were low flying aircrafts. 333 00:19:19.520 --> 00:19:23.320 She says. She suspected that the aircraft hovering overhead were 334 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:24.680 government helicopters. 335 00:19:25.040 --> 00:19:27.040 All we could figure was that they were taking down 336 00:19:27.119 --> 00:19:32.399 license plates or taking pictures of us, and it was 337 00:19:32.520 --> 00:19:33.320 very intimidating. 338 00:19:33.440 --> 00:19:36.720 Doctor Garcia says. The government was sending them a clear message. 339 00:19:36.800 --> 00:19:39.520 That's when we realized that we were now playing in 340 00:19:39.560 --> 00:19:42.879 a whole different environment, that this was not going to 341 00:19:42.880 --> 00:19:46.119 be something we could resolve sitting at a table that 342 00:19:46.160 --> 00:19:48.679 they had pulled out all the stops to make this happen. 343 00:19:49.080 --> 00:19:52.680 Law professor Denise Gilman says the federal government likely did 344 00:19:52.680 --> 00:19:55.399 not understand what it had gotten itself into when it 345 00:19:55.480 --> 00:19:57.000 decided to take on UTB. 346 00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:01.360 But I do think that they made assumption about the university, 347 00:20:01.359 --> 00:20:06.640 which frankly are quite offensive and somewhat racist, that this 348 00:20:06.680 --> 00:20:10.080 would not be a challenge to go ahead and take 349 00:20:10.080 --> 00:20:12.359 property from the university and put up a border wall there. 350 00:20:12.600 --> 00:20:15.560 To stand up to the US government, the university needed 351 00:20:15.560 --> 00:20:19.600 the full support and considerable resources of the University of 352 00:20:19.600 --> 00:20:23.119 Texas system. Doctor Garcia says she presented her case to 353 00:20:23.119 --> 00:20:26.240 the university regents, the people who had the power to 354 00:20:26.320 --> 00:20:28.679 decide whether to provide that backing or not. 355 00:20:29.040 --> 00:20:30.520 As a matter of fact, I had a couple of 356 00:20:30.560 --> 00:20:33.399 regents say, well, let's just move the university. Those are 357 00:20:33.400 --> 00:20:36.600 our roots, it's our home. You know, my children, my 358 00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:40.960 children's children have grandparents on both sides of the river here, 359 00:20:41.240 --> 00:20:44.639 so you know, to imagine the simple solution of just 360 00:20:44.680 --> 00:20:48.600 moving away. I had to get them to understand. 361 00:20:48.840 --> 00:20:51.800 But then doctor Garcia says, the regents attorney. 362 00:20:51.480 --> 00:20:54.280 Spoke Barry Bergdorf, who was the attorney for the Board 363 00:20:54.280 --> 00:20:59.040 of Regents, finally said to them in a very carefully 364 00:20:59.040 --> 00:21:03.080 crafted statement, and he said, the US government's asking you 365 00:21:03.160 --> 00:21:06.000 to seed this land to Mexico. And the moment he 366 00:21:06.080 --> 00:21:10.240 said it that way, I knew the board was convinced. 367 00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:12.880 Because you don't tell a textan they're about to see 368 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:13.800 land of Mexico. 369 00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:18.440 They voted unanimously to refuse the government requests for access 370 00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:21.720 to the Brownsville campus, setting up a legal showdown in 371 00:21:21.800 --> 00:21:22.480 federal court. 372 00:21:22.800 --> 00:21:25.480 I don't think they thought they were going to they 373 00:21:25.480 --> 00:21:29.320 were going to awake the giant, right. I think they 374 00:21:29.520 --> 00:21:33.320 just saw this as a sleepy little place that would 375 00:21:33.320 --> 00:21:38.720 be easy pickens. And I cannot imagine that they thought 376 00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:41.119 they were taking on the University of Texas system. 377 00:21:41.480 --> 00:21:44.800 In February two thousand and eight, Bush's last year in office, 378 00:21:44.800 --> 00:21:47.719 and mere days after the Regions threw its support behind 379 00:21:47.800 --> 00:21:51.760 U TB, the federal government sued the university for access 380 00:21:51.840 --> 00:21:56.080 to the university campus. Doctor Garcia assembled a team of experts, 381 00:21:56.359 --> 00:22:00.240 including Dan Renfro, general counsel for Texas Southmost College, an 382 00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:04.359 environmental engineer, a law enforcement expert, and a former Southmost 383 00:22:04.400 --> 00:22:07.480 College board member who was familiar with the partnership between 384 00:22:07.520 --> 00:22:12.119 the college and university. Garcia managed public relations, keeping local 385 00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:15.439 and school officials as well as students, faculty, staff, and 386 00:22:15.560 --> 00:22:16.640 donors in the loop. 387 00:22:16.520 --> 00:22:18.639 That he was proud of the university and it was 388 00:22:18.920 --> 00:22:23.119 something that had flourished and that the community was looking 389 00:22:23.160 --> 00:22:24.080 forward to flourishing. 390 00:22:24.119 --> 00:22:27.840 Further that was Dan Renfro, the attorney for Texas Southmost College. 391 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:32.320 Negotiations between UTB and DHS carried on for weeks and 392 00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:35.800 hours before their first court date, they reached a tentative agreement. 393 00:22:36.080 --> 00:22:38.400 The government said they would not pursue a court order 394 00:22:38.440 --> 00:22:41.919 after all to gain access to the campus, and in return, 395 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:45.280 the university would help the government address its quote unquote 396 00:22:45.480 --> 00:22:49.399 security concerns. Whether that included a border wall remained to 397 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:50.159 be seen. 398 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:53.440 And technically the case at that point was dismissed, but. 399 00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:56.679 The truce did not last. The government wanted a wall 400 00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:01.359 and would not budge. Negotiations stalled after According to what 401 00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:05.280