The woman with the wall key on the border between Texas and Mexico

Eloisa Tamez is Apane Lipan and his ancestors owned this land a century before a war imposed the border between Texas, United States and Mexico . Now, her yard is crossed by a border wall that she feels like a "rape".

The bottom of his house, in the border town of El Calaboz, in southeastern Texas, is a vacant lot divided in two by a rusty iron fence 5.5 meters high [19659002] Since it was not possible to build a wall in the middle of the Rio Grande that delineates the natural border with Mexico, the federal authorities erected it a few kilometers north of the shoreline.

This has meant that some of the lands crossed by the wall – and will pbad, if they continue to be built – belonged to native tribes or private farmers

This is what happened there almost ten years to Támez, professor of nursing. of the University of Texas in the Rio Grande Valley and militant for the rights of the Apache tribe of lipan

"It is very sad to see what happened to my property, which was evaluated by my parents not for money, but for what the land produces for us, because my father was a farmer, "he says.

old woman AFP 83 years old" He raped " , he added, "It makes me very sad to see this happen and I'm glad my parents did not see it."

The federal authorities gave him a key to open the door that it allows access to the other side of its ancestral territory:, 2 hectares of desert dotted with cacti and mesquites

This is what remains of almost 5000 hectares that belonged to their ancestors Lipan Apaches since the eighteenth century, thanks to a grant of land from the Spanish Crown.

In 2009, after a see lost a federal government lawsuit, Támez was "forced" to receive compensation of $ 56,000, that she donated scholarships for her parents.

Other farmers, all of whose land was left south of the wall, they also received access codes to their properties.

But most cases were settled with federal government credits for values ​​that averaged $ 12,600, according to a survey. n public radio NPR after badysis of 320 "fencing cases" filed between 2008 and 2016 in the Rio Grande Valley region, some of which are still in dispute.

Situations like this can multiply if Trump succeeds in his project to wall up the entire border, a third of which is already closed through a 2006 law by then President George W. Bush.

The wall is a patch

Two-thirds of the immigrants held across the border (out of a total of 303,916 last year nationwide) are captured in Texas, according to figures from the Border Patrol.

That is why the family separation of immigrants attracts national and international attention. in the last two months he has had his epicenter in this state, especially in the Rio Grande Valley region, where Támez lives.

There is the largest detention center for undocumented migrants and asylum seekers "Ursula", with over a thousand inmates) and the shelter for minors "Casa Padre", a Walmart hospital that houses approximately 1,400 children.

Since May, more than 2,300 children have been separated from their parents or guardians when they were detained crossing the border, illegally or seeking asylum, following President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy.

While Trump ordered June 20 to end the family separation, more than 2,000 children remain alone For Támez, "the current migration crisis is a result of Congress's inability to enforce laws for decades. "

An immigration reform project that included the president's proposal to build a wall that dissects the 3,218 km border, and which would cost $ 25,000 million, again failed last Wednesday in Congress

"The loss of our land to build a wall is a patch for the migration crisis, not the solution," said Tamez. "Congress has not been able to govern as it should, but rather to make politics."

"This is not the first time that they violate our rights by removing our lands," continued the indigenous activist, evoking an appropriation. in 1936.

And if the Trump project succeeds, it will not be the last either.

AFP