Before the wall, came the fence.
Securing the nearly 2,000-mile border between the United States and Mexico is no easy task. The border crosses deserts and cities, ranches and rivers. Legal battles over the fence have outlasted two presidents. Now President Donald Trump is promising a border wall.
For that, Congress will probably have to acquire even more land than the fence-builders did. Plus, the government may have to take hundreds of landowners to court—perhaps some of the same ones still squabbling over the fence.
President George W. Bush signed the Secure Fence Act in 2006. Congress set aside money to fence one-third of the border between the United States and Mexico.
About 650 miles of fence went up. One hundred miles ran through Texas, which has the longest border of any state with Mexico.
But the uneven course of the Rio Grande River, rough terrain, and private land ownership created engineering and legal obstacles. The problems required hundreds of deals with individual property owners for pieces of land.
Legally, the U.S. government can use a power called “eminent domain” to seize private property. Under eminent domain, the land must be used for a public purpose, and the government must pay what the Constitution calls “just compensation,” or a fair price. But the process can take years if a landowner fights the seizure.
The Justice Department filed around 400 claims against landowners under the Secure Fence Act.
Some landowners have resisted the fence for a decade. They recently received letters making offers to settle. The new offers made them wonder whether lawyers are paving the way for a wall.
Rudy Cavazos was tired of going to court. The government had already built a fence along a nearby Rio Grande levee. It got permission from the local water district, which many believed owned the land. But the tract really belonged to Cavazos and about 20 other landowners.
Cavazos settled late last year. He received $7,000 for less than a half-acre. “They paid me my peanuts,” he says.
Legal experts say the Secure Fence Act gives the government authority to build something new and bigger on land purchased for the fence. That worries landowners who have already lost property.
Still, the biggest hurdle may be getting Congress to agree on the funding, design, and purpose of the wall.
While it’s unclear what form a border wall may take, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly says that contrary to Trump’s campaign speeches, it’s unlikely to run “from sea to shining sea.”
