The COVID-19 pandemic has paused many legal proceedings in the United States, however, court actions filed by the U.S. government to survey and take private land in Texas for the border wall has accelerated.

Laredo is home to 250 landowners-half of whom half allowed the government to survey for the wall planned to be built in the area, which is expected to span more than 69 miles. According to the Wall Street Journal, the government has filed over 24 federal cases against landowners in the area after they refused to allow surveyors onto their land. In Texas, owners who are unwilling to give up their land voluntarily will be sued by the government in federal court twice. The initial lawsuit aims to grant the government the rights to survey, while the second lawsuit aims to give the government land ownership.

Landowners rarely win in federal lawsuits as the government holds the authority to take land for national security. Many fight to delay the process, or to increase payment for the land.

Border Wall

Since 2017, the U.S. government has built over 194 miles of wall along the U.S.-Mexico Border that spans over 2,000 miles. Most of the work involved replacing existing walls or fences. Parts of the wall will be built in the Laredo area where funds were allocated in late 2019. While more than half of the property owners who were contacted have voluntarily signed papers to allow surveyors onto their land, a quarter has refused. The refusal led the U.S. Justice Department to sue the city to get access to over 980 acres of the riverfront.

Laredo officials responded to the lawsuit by claiming the wall is illegal because the Congress did not specify that the wall would be built in Webb County. The CBP claims the wall will help improve the city's ability to impede and deny illegal border crossings and smuggling which they consider is an area of high illegal activity. However, the department's own figures show that apprehensions of illegal foreigners in the area has been among the lowest on the southwest border for over two decades.

The Drug Enforcement Administration also claimed the majority of the smuggling of illegal drugs occur in international bridges with the help of vehicles.

Environmental Impact

Laredo residents are concerned the border wall would ruin the view of a river they claim is the city's amenity. The wall's bright lights will also ruin the night sky for the residents who favor observing stars and meteor showers. Environmentalists claimed the wall would also cut off the city from the Rio Grande which serves as its main water source. Leaders of a nonprofit organization said the 30-foot-tall wall with a 150-foot-wide enforcement zone will take out vegetation and destroy gated communities and a ranch.

Melissa Cigarroa, president of the nonprofit organization, claims running the wall upstream would have a devastating effect according to a recent report. "The impacts to the river, to neighborhoods, and Laredo College and also the city, it's not just the bollards but the 150-foot enforcement zone will take out all of the locations along that river land."

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