In the latest indication the Trump administration is inching closer toward building a border wall, hundreds of property owners along the Texas-Mexico border are receiving notices for the government to survey their lands.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Customs and Border Protection so far have sent letters to 200 property owners, including the Rio Grande City School District, in Starr and Hidalgo counties.
“The purpose of the right of entry for survey request is to provide the Government and its contractors access to land in order to conduct real estate, environmental, and design surveys associated with the future construction of border barriers and other infrastructure included in the Fiscal Year 2017 and 2018 appropriations,” said a CBP spokesperson.
The length of each survey may vary depending on the parcel size, initial discoveries, and other contributing factors, however the initial timeframe requested for access to each property in the right of entries is 18 months.
“This is only just to go take a look at the land then there will be other steps, but just because somebody says come survey the land doesn't mean they're going to say yes,” says Congressman Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo.
Cuellar expects at least some property owners will fight the wall in court.
“Under the Bush administration over 10 years ago there are still pending lawsuits,” he says. “So, depending on how much resources a land owner has, some of them might be fighting this for quite a while.”
“There are some land owners, and some of them are Republicans who supported Trump, but they don't support him on putting up a wall.”
Cuellar believes taxpayer money would be better spent on drones, cameras and more agents.