Even if President Donald Trump gets his way, eminent domain lawyers say a variety of legal issues would arise surrounding private land seizures that could delay wall construction for years — and even derail it entirely.
The Taking
Inside the federal government’s haphazard, decade-long process of seizing private land for a border fence.
Posted in
The Taking
In the Rio Grande Valley, plans for a border wall ignite fight between church and state
The Catholic Diocese of Brownsville is resisting the government’s efforts to take over the historic chapel that gave Mission its name. And a man known as the “cowboy priest” finds himself at the center of a national debate with local implications.
Posted in
The Taking
Hidalgo County sues former employee and engineering firm involved in border fence project
The South Texas county filed suit against Godfrey Garza Jr. and the high-profile Houston-based Dannenbaum Engineering on Wednesday.
Posted in
The Taking
South Texas judge dismisses fraud lawsuit over border fence project
A judge said Hidalgo County’s lawsuit against former drainage district manager Godfrey Garza Jr. wasn’t strong enough to take before a jury. But the county judge says the county will appeal.
Posted in
The Taking
New allegations in border fence lawsuit: racketeering, bribes and money laundering
Recent court filings in a case brought by Hidalgo County against a former employee who oversaw construction of a Bush-era border barrier allege a vast kickback scheme worked out over drinks and steak dinners.
Posted in
The Taking
Texas smugglers say Trump’s border wall wouldn’t stop immigrants, drugs from pouring across the border
If the Trump administration follows through on the president’s promises to build a border wall, would it actually stop undocumented immigrants and illegal drugs? Two former smugglers explain how they’d work around it.
Posted in
The Taking
How a South Texas bureaucrat became a multimillionaire amid the rush to build a border fence
A decade ago as the federal government rushed to construct 60 miles of barrier in the Rio Grande Valley, it entrusted the chief of a little-known local agency to execute a compromise project. What it didn’t know was that he — and his family — stood to make millions from it.
Posted in
The Taking
The Taking, illustrated: A Texas family’s story of losing land for the border fence
In comic strip form, read one border resident’s story of waiting nearly a decade for the government to pay for land it seized for the border fence.
Posted in
The Taking
The border fence looms over these Texans. Should the government pay them?
Scores of Texas landowners who have lived in the shadow of the border fence for years were never compensated for any damage to their property values.
Posted in
The Taking
How the border fence cut through one Brownsville neighborhood (video)
An investigation by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica revealed that landowners were paid unevenly for similar plots of land when the federal government began taking property to build a border fence in the Rio Grande Valley. Hear the stories of a few of those landowners.