The government would have to seize a lot of land to build a wall. That didn't end well for many Texans the last time that happened.
We investigated with @ProPublica in 2017: bit.ly/2RBTX7G
But in 2008, Homeland Security snapped up 564 acres in the Rio Grande Valley in mere months.
bit.ly/2RBTX7G
They should have had time to fight, but they didn’t. bit.ly/2RBTX7G
They used a legal loophole so the agency wouldn’t have to formally appraise the land, making lowball offers based on substandard estimates instead. bit.ly/2RBTX7G
But other landowners who could afford lawyers got deals that, on average, *tripled* the opening bids. bit.ly/2RBTX7G
Other times, it condemned land without identifying an owner or researching basic facts about the property. bit.ly/2RBTX7G
Roberto Pedraza was paid $20,500 for land he didn’t own.
He got to keep the money. bit.ly/2RBTX7G