Immigration battle advances
Government moving ahead with 2008 plan to seize land for project
The Department of Homeland Security is moving forward on condemning property for several miles of South Texas border fence that was authorized a decade ago but never built.
Landowners in Los Ebanos, near McAllen, and Roma, 30 miles upstream, said in recent months they received notices that the federal government is reviving long-dormant lawsuits to condemn acreage
they own near the Rio Grande.
Noe Benavides, a former Roma city councilman, said earlier this month he received a letter telling him the government is taking 5.7 acres of real estate his family owns near the riverbank.
The land was initially condemned in 2008 after then-President George W. Bush signed the Secure Fence Act, but a clerical error kept the government from taking control of his property, Benavides said.
“It’s a strip 60 feet wide by the lands on the river that we have there,” he said. “And you know, I wouldn’t mind if they went parallel to the river, but they’re not. They’re following a road that I have there, and there’s probably about 20 acres plus left behind the fence.”
Reviving the plan
Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security, the Border Patrol and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which has filed lawsuits to condemn property for the fence, did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
President Donald Trump has ordered DHS to build a wall, estimated to cost $21 billion. Congress has yet to fund it, and the notices sent out this year are related to an earlier law that authorized construction of a physical barrier on the border with Mexico.
Scott Nicol, co-chair of the Borderlands Team for the Sierra Club, said DHS is likely trying to build 14 miles of fencing that were abandoned in 2008 because they were planned in the Rio Grande floodplain.
About 650 miles of fencing was constructed, much of it in Arizona and New Mexico, under the 2006 Secure Fence Act. Almost 60 miles were built in the Rio Grande Valley, most of it on levies above the river.
An international treaty restricts construction in the floodplain, and in 2008 the International Boundaries and Water Commission, the bi-national organization that oversees the U.S.-Mexico border, rejected DHS’s request to build segments of fence near Roma, Rio Grande City and Los Ebanos, Nicol said. In 2012, the U.S. Section of the commission reversed itself, over the objection of their Mexican counterparts, and authorized the construction, but the funds weren’t available, he added.
Recognizing that Trump’s wall could be held up by years of legal wrangling, like its predecessor, Nicol said DHS appears to be going after sections of fencing that were authorized by Congress but never constructed.
A spokeswoman for the commission directed questions to DHS. ‘Completely against it’
Yvette Salinas of Mission said that on Jan. 12, DHS sent her family a letter warning them it is moving forward to condemn 1.2 acres near Los Ebanos and offering the family $2,900. The federal government had initially tried to condemn the property in 2008, Salinas said. It belonged to her great-grandmother who passed away without writing a will, leaving the ownership of the property unclear. Salinas said she’s not sure why DHS is now moving ahead with the condemnation.
“My family’s completely against it because while it’s just 1.2 acres, not to mention the low compensation, it’s part of a bigger piece of land that belongs to our ancestors, because not only is it gong to taint the space, but it’s going to devalue the land.” she said. “They want to take the part on the side of the river, but we have cattle and cows there, and that would essentially mean the cattle can’t drink from the river.”
The Texas Observer first reported on Salinas’ property.
Benavides said he also received a notice about fence construction near real estate his family owns in Roma’s central square. He said his riverfront property was granted to his wife’s family in the 18th century by the king of Spain. His family uses it regularly, and he used to host local Boy Scout troops.
“We used to have camporees for the council here, and our family always picnics there by the river, but I guess my son and my daughter are the last generation that’s going to do that. My grandchildren won’t be able to do that.”