Activists, mayors protest US-Mexico border wall

EL PASO, Texas, Aug 25 (Reuters) The mayors of the Texan city of El Paso and the Mexican city of Juarez led a protest by dozens of people today against a planned border wall to stem illegal immigration into America.

The protesters held hands across the Paso del Norte Bridge, which spans the Rio Grande and connects the downtown cores of the two cities.

Resentment against the wall runs deep in the border areas of Texas. Landowners are concerned it may cut across their property, conservationists see it destroying crucial riverside habitat, and some activists see it inflaming ethnic tensions.

El Paso Mayor John Cook and Juarez Mayor Hector Murguia Lardizabal embraced at the top of the bridge.

''Today is a historic day in the expression of friendship between two mayors, two cities and two countries. It is necessary for Washington and Mexico City to understand that our border doesn't separate us, it joins us,'' Cook said.

Murguia said the Mexican government had failed its own people who he said were forced to go north seeking jobs because of the poverty they faced at home.

John Neck, a resident of border town of Brownsville in the far southeastern corner of Texas, made the long trek to El Paso in the west of the state for the event.

''Mexico is the most important country to the United States.

They're not going anywhere ... if we build a wall it will set back relations with Mexico 100 years, and you can't blame them, they know what a wall means,'' said Neck, who described himself as a fifth-generation Texan.

Supporters of the wall, which is planned to run for hundreds of miles along the border, argue it is needed to help block the swelling tide of illegal immigration as well as widespread drug and gun smuggling.

Officials have said that construction of the Texas portion of the wall could begin as early as this fall.

But local opposition is rising in border areas which often have large Latino populations.

Previous protests against the wall on the Rio Grande have involved flotillas of paddlers. Activists said an anti-wall rally was also scheduled for later today in Mission, on the border in southeast Texas.

REUTERS AK BST0145