New report details Trump effort to seize thousands of acres of private land for border wall
Source: CBS News
The Trump administration acquired at least 135 tracts of private land to build barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border and planned to seize a total of 5,275 acres to fulfill President Trump's campaign pledge, according to a government watchdog report obtained by CBS News.
A study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress' independent investigative arm, found that the Trump administration had secured the 135 sections of private land along the southern border as of July by reaching agreements with the owners or taking them to court and seizing their property. Officials planned to acquire another 991 tracts, most of them in south Texas, according to the report.
Between January 2017 and August 2020, the Justice Department filed 109 lawsuits against landowners to access their property or seize it permanently, GAO said. The owners of the 285 acres that the government has taken outright without an agreement have been offered between $1,440 and $870,261 per acre in compensation.
Trump administration lawyers were preparing to file another 100 lawsuits against landowners to permanently acquire their property along the southern border, according to the report.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-border-wall-private-land-seizure-plans-eminent-domain/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=105237776
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