Posted on 12/10/2019 12:33:50 PM PST by BeauBo
First local landowner receives notice of court action for border wall surveys.
Last week Tony Medina Jr., who owns about three acres (near the Max A. Mandel Golf Course) right off Santa Isabel Creek at the tip of a horseshoe bend in the Rio Grande was notified that the government will be filing for the condemnation of his property in federal court, a process where the government seizes private property and compensates the owner.
This is the first such case that has come to light in the Laredo area.
As of December 2, 2019, we have not received your permission to access the property, and because the Government has an immediate need to enter your property to conduct the necessary surveys, we have determined that it will be necessary to file an action in federal court to allow us to enter for these purposes for a limited period of 12 months, reads part of the letter Medina received from Customs and Border Protection.
The government anticipates seeking this right of entry in the next 90 days, they write, the pleading for which is called a Declaration of Taking and Complaint in Condemnation. No action has been filed yet, according to court records.
Money to construct a border wall in this area of Webb County has not yet been funded; however, the government has the funding to conduct these surveys.
(Excerpt) Read more at lmtonline.com ...
They are conducting the site surveys to prepare for those projects, and this hard-nosed resistor refused to allow access for the surveyors.
So this filing is just to compel access for the surveyors, not to permanently take the land (that may come later, if he refuses to settle).
Down in the Rio Grande Valley, where FY2019 money has already been put on construction contracts, and groundbreaking is imminent, they have recently (last Friday, 6, December), filed a Declaration of Taking to actually take title to some land. We will likely see the resistors get their land condemned down there over the next several weeks/months.
Every landowner gets a fair market compensation offer first, and can argue the price in court later, if they want to try to get more - but they cannot stop/slow the construction, when the Government files its Declaration of Taking.
Bottom Line: Trump Super-Barrier coming through, everyone must stand aside.
Eminent domain.
Sometimes it’s for a highway. Sometimes for other use.
We need the wall.
We already Know Trump’s ideas regarding eminent domain. The same applied to federal law regarding Elian Gonzales.
Build the wall around his three acres and let all the illegals have free reign there. Then later when he dies buy the land, put up the wall to run with the rest of the border wall, and you’ve got a three acre detention holding area.
Thought this might interest you
PING
At 4 sq ft per person, that’s about 33,000 illegals you can cram in there. Works for me.
This is just for access to survey. They may condemn it later. And, they may not take all of it. Anytime I ever lost land to eminent domain, I made out like a bandit.
I’d slightly lower their asking price for written and guaranteed permission to hang out on-site to watch construction.
Eminent domain works for me if it reduces flow of illegals and drugs across the UNprotected border.
“Build the wall around his three acres and let all the illegals have free reign there. Then later when he dies buy the land, put up the wall to run with the rest of the border wall, and youve got a three acre detention holding area.”
I like your thinking!
Remind me how a White House order to send in a swat team to abduct Elian Gonzales from family members with military level weapons drawn, had anything remotely legitimate to do with a child custody case weaving it’s way through our court system.
Remind me how eminent domain for federal projects on the border has anything to do with any entity other than the White House and federal courts.
These two things are not even remotely comparable.
Think of all the “eminent domain” cases that were adjudicated when the US interstate highway system was built. I think we got this.
Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
How useful is the land anyway?
I’d bet real money that the owner of those 3 acres was interested in selling it at a high profit because it is near/adjacent to a golf course-that raises the property value, for some people-he’s just afraid the government won’t pay his no doubt inflated price, so he’s showing his ass...
I assume that all border wall versions will cut off access to the river to everybody on this side. Has there been any discussion about rerouting the river. Not kidding about that, losing access to the river is kind of a big deal.
Agree.
“Anytime I ever lost land to eminent domain, I made out like a bandit.”
indeed ... almost all governmental entities exercising eminent domain would overpay a bit than go through an adversarial process, even though the government is always guaranteed to win in the end ...
Sure. There have been four times I gave up property to eminent domain in the past. I always settled for about 3 times what is was worth per acre. I turned around and bought more land and paid off bills and put the rest in the bank. And, all it ever took was a bit of negotiating with the land representative. Nothing ever went to court. And, three of those times it was for pipeline right-of-ways and I still technically owned the surface rights to the land and could do anything I wanted with it except grow trees on it. On top of that, they have to keep it mowed!
“And, three of those times it was for pipeline right-of-ways and I still technically owned the surface rights”
right-of-way generally implies ownership; are you sure you didn’t just give up a pipeline easement?
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