The Trump Admin Is Trying to Build the Border Wall on Land It Doesnât Own
President Trump gestures toward fencing at the international border with Mexico in San Luis, Arizona, June 23, 2020.
Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images
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A new investigation has found that the Trump administration has awarded contracts to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico on land that it does not yet own. This tactic has led to millions of dollars in delay costs.
The investigation, produced jointly by
ProPublica and
The Texas Tribune, finds that, in many places where the government does not yet own the land, âthe agency has used the argument, often successfully, to convince even dubious federal judges to immediately seize land from property owners fighting their eminent domain casesâ at least 24 times. These cases have caused some frustration among the judges hearing them, the publications report, with the U.S. government forcing timelines unnecessarily.