Immigration Impact by Melissa Cruz | Nov 19, 2019
Trump Moves Forward With Seizing Private Land for Border Wall, Offers Landowners $100 for ‘Irrevocable’ Access
The Trump administration is preparing to seize private land in Texas to continue construction of the president’s long-promised border wall. According to government officials familiar with the process, the administration plans to take over the private land before telling property owners how much it will pay them in return.
Attorneys for the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice have prepared rights of entry letters for the landowners. Once the landowners receive the notice, government officials will be free to
enter their properties to access the land, test soil, and conduct land surveys for months at a time.
In a normal eminent domain case, the government settles on a negotiated price with landowners before seizing the land. But the Trump administration has yet to agree on a price for the properties and land.
The administration may be dragging its feet, the officials say, because it plans to seize the land through the
Declaration of Taking Act—instead of using eminent domain. This act is meant to be reserved for emergencies. But the administration will likely rely on the president’s declaration of a
national emergency to secure funding for the wall as the same basis for seizing property for its construction.
More:
http://immigrationimpact.com/2019/11/19/trump-private-land-border-wall/#.XdX6DXt7mUl
