Republicans Ignore Constitution and Big Government Concerns to Stand with Trump
A Washington Post story by Nick Miroff and Arelis Hernandez, “Trump administration has acquired little of the private land in Texas it needs for border barrier,” reminds us that despite Trump’s border wall obsessions and the related enabling by congressional Republicans, the administration hasn’t made much progress on wall construction. In areas where the government would need to seize land from private landowners, the Post reports that the Trump administration has acquired just 16 percent of needed land.
According to Douglas Rivlin, Director of Communication for America’s Voice:
So much for the constitutional separation of powers or supposedly conservative concerns about big government spending and overreach: the Trump administration and their Republican enablers are all in on Trump’s politically motivated border wall obsession. From the emergency declaration used to raid military appropriations projects to last year’s wall-related government shutdown to the efforts to seize land from private landowners, Trump is hellbent on claiming victory on his political rally call and response. He’s waved away concerns about seizing private land, the constitution, and the legality of their actions, with Trump wanting to ‘take the land’ by any means necessary. But as the Post story reminds us, despite the complicity of Republican Senators Ernst, McSally, Perdue, McConnell, Tillis, Cornyn and others, the administration is failing to deliver on Trump’s signature promise: Mexico isn’t paying for the wall and Trump isn’t building the wwall.As end of year budget pressures and impeachment pressures increase, look for Trump to put increasing emphasis on the wall and watch how Republicans react from states that are targeted for wall construction like Texas, Arizona and, ahem, Colorado.
See below for key excerpts from Nick Miroff and Arelis Hernandez’s story in the Washington Post, “Trump administration has acquired little of the private land in Texas it needs for border barrier”:
The Trump administration has acquired just 16 percent of the private land in Texas it needs to build the president’s border barrier, casting doubt on his campaign promise to complete nearly 500 miles of new fencing by the end of next year, according to the latest construction data obtained by The Washington Post.
And of the 166 miles of border barrier the U.S. government is planning to build in Texas, new construction has been completed along just 2 percent of that stretch a year before the target completion date, according to the construction data. Just four miles of the planned border wall in Texas is on federal land — the other 162 lie on private property.
… David Acevedo, a rancher and businessman with a 180-acre property south of Laredo, said he does not want to lose land his grandfather purchased more than a century ago. He has granted Border Patrol agents access to his property, but he does not want a giant steel structure on it. ‘I want border security. Put up more cameras, sensors, send more agents and give them drones,’ he said. ‘But we don’t need a wall.’”
… Trump, who has demanded frequent updates on the pace of construction, has been warned by staff that building the barrier on private property in Texas will be difficult. The president has waved off those worries, telling aides to ‘take the land.’
