Customs and Border Protection will begin surveying land possibly for the proposed border wall.

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The Monitor by BERENICE GARCIA  Jul 1, 2018

U.S. Customs and Border Protection will begin surveying land belonging to the Rio Grande City school district, possibly for the purposes of a proposed border wall.

The RGC school board approved a request from U.S. Customs and Border Protection Monday to enter onto the district’s property for survey and site assessment.

Board President Daniel Garcia said he couldn’t comment on whether it was for border wall since CBP did not specify the purpose of the assessment.

However, the land they will survey is located by the Rio Grande River, Garcia said.

“It didn’t affect anything having to do with the school,” he said of the site. “It was more toward land that we don’t even use that’s by the river.”

Garcia said trustees only approved an assessment and expected CBP needing to seek further board approval for any additional action.

“I would assume that’d be the next step,” he said. “Once they complete their survey, for whatever purpose they’re doing their survey, I guess we’ll be informed on what’s the next step or what they're planning.”

The request from CBP signals the government’s plans to move forward with constructing a border barrier in Starr County. In March, Congress approved 8 miles of border wall approved in the omnibus spending bill, which also included 25 miles of new levee wall along the Rio Grande.

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http://tpr.org/post/some-rio-grande-valley-landowners-agree-land-survey-border-wall

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has sent letters to 67 Rio Grande Valley landowners, requesting permission to survey their land as a possible site for a border wall. But congressional leaders believe that it could be decades before any work begins.

The letters to landowners indicate that the federal government is ready to begin construction of a border wall.

In March, Congress approved federal funding for 8 miles of a border wall and 25 miles of a levee wall along a section of the Rio Grande.

One of the areas federal officials will survey is unused land owned by the Rio Grande City Consolidated Independent School District.

The McAllen Monitor newspaper reported that the school district approved the federal request to survey land adjacent to the river.

Congressman Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said 38 of the 67 Rio Grande Valley landowners who were sent “request of land entry” letters, have agreed to the survey. But Cuellar said others have required a little more convincing.