US heads to court to build Trump border wall in Texas
Source: AP
By NOMAAN MERCHANT
HOUSTON (AP) — Three years into Donald Trump’s presidency, the U.S. government is ramping up its efforts to seize private land in Texas to build a border wall.
Trump’s signature campaign promise has consistently faced political, legal, and environmental obstacles in Texas, which has the largest section of the U.S.-Mexico border, most of it without fencing. And much of the land along the Rio Grande, the river that forms the border in Texas, is privately held and environmentally sensitive.
Almost no land has been taken so far. But Department of Justice lawyers have filed three lawsuits this month seeking to take property from landowners. On Tuesday, lawyers moved to seize land in one case immediately before a scheduled court hearing in February.
The agency says it’s ready to file many more petitions to take private land in the coming weeks. While progress has lagged, the process of taking land under eminent domain is weighted heavily in the government’s favor.
FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2019, file photo the first panels of levee border wall are seen at a construction site along the U.S.-Mexico border in Donna, Texas. Three years into Donald Trump's presidency, the U.S. government is finally ramping up its efforts to seize the private land it needs to build a border wall in South Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Read more: https://apnews.com/082c873c8b32972217caa1eebf167ab9
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