“My husband knows a family with a ranch on the Rio Grande . They don’t have access to 15 acres cut off by the fence. They used to grow hay, graze cattle, hunt there. Luckily, the ranch is large and they still can pay the taxes and bills.
The Patriot Act took pasture with no compensation, no recourse. But they still pay property tax.”
Sounds like they need a lawyer...they’ll do better if he cites the 5th Amendment (which the Patriot act does not override).
per my #490 and Bob’s suggestion that the family get a lawyer.
People and cities have tried and lost.
http://www.samuellogan.com/articles/texans-fence-with-federal-authorities.html
The Patriot Act and the empowerment of the Department of Homeland Security to build the fence where they want were reinforced by the Secure Fence Act in 2006, and the DHS, Chertoff, and now Napolitano weren’t and aren’t looking for any local input or compromise.
The Feds admit that the fence only slows down crossers. That article above says,
“””Border Patrol has admitted this border fence will only slow down the illegal entry by about three to four minutes, and at a cost of US$49 billion, we just don’t think that’s good enough.”””
So, this family lost access to 15 acres of prime riverfront hay pasture without compensation and without a noticeable effect on the illegals crossing their land.
We’re talking about hundreds of miles of similar stories.
If you want to read a slightly left-leaning review of the state’s border efforts over the last 10 years, here’s one from a year ago. The author ignores the several times that gunshots have crossed the Rio in El Paso and tries to condemn Texas for catching illegal aliens at all, but the then-historical parts make us look good.
http://bostonreview.net/BR35.5/barry.php