The Democratic staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee released a report Monday detailing a lack of information from the Trump Administration on costs and timeline for land seizures needed for the proposed border wall.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in July that it would collaborate with the Army Corps of Engineers on land acquisition efforts by conducting in-person reviews of property records at county courthouses in South Texas. Earlier this year, the Administration requested approximately $2 million as part of its FY 2018 budget to hire additional attorneys at the Department of Justice to support land acquisition for the wall.
CBP told the Committee that it expects land acquisition to take 12 to 24 months. The report noted that historically such efforts have taken much longer and had higher costs than expected. Approximately 90 lawsuits related to land seizure along the border, filed primarily in 2008 and 2009, are still pending, the report said.
The report also includes accounts of the personal experiences of several Texas citizens who were affected by land acquisition in the past.
“Before spending billions of taxpayer dollars on the construction of a wall along the southwest border, CBP, DHS, and the President have an obligation to Congress – and to the American people – to address questions related to land acquisition that, to date, remain unanswered,” the report said.