Texans rally against planned Mexico-to-Canada superhighway

As Senators Clinton and Obama prepared to debate in their state, Texans were marching in protest over the NAFTA superhighway known as the Trans-Texas Corridor, or I-69, the primary purpose of which is to speed the delivery of goods coming in from Mexico to proposed inland ports.

The TTC is planned to span the state of Texas from Laredo, on the Mexican border, to Texarkana, on the border with Arkansas, to continue north to Canada. The projected cost is $183 billion over fifty years, with no American companies expressing interest in financing it.

With no public approval required to begin construction, repeated calls against the TTC at public meetings, with seldom a word of support, may easily go unheeded.

"This is about international--global companies that are coming in and having their way with our politicians," says Terri Hall of TexasTURF. "It doesn't matter what does to the people in the path," she continues, "it doesn't matter what it does to our way of life..."

"Citizens here," says an unidentified man at a public hearing, "are not going to bear the burden so Wal-Mart can get their cargo into the U.S. cheaper and faster."

Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) is among opponents of the TTC, doubting the intentions of those planning its construction. He cites millions of acres subject to eminent domain, which the state promises to use against landowners who protest, and also notes that he has yet to encounter a person that supports the TTC.

"Frankly," says Texas Department of Transportation's Phil Russell, "we're in a different day and age right now, and the way we built our roadways fifty years ago simply isn't keeping up with the congestion that we're seeing here in Texas now."

"This is really messing with Texas," quips an incredulous Lou Dobbs to anchor Bill Tucker. "You can't tell me that Governor Rick Perry and the head of the Department of Transportation down there--that they're dumb enough to say that, because all of this traffic's coming out of Mexico, that Texas citizens should be funding the highway that is needed as a result of that traffic. That's absolutely idiotic."

"If people are putting up with this nonsense from their state government, and Governor Rick Perry, and their Department of Transportation," Dobbs continues, "these aren't the Texans that I know, and who I respect mightily."

The report, broadcast on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight on February 19, 2008, is available to view below.

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