Texas towns sue Homeland Security over border wall plans

According to the TBCs complaint, Homeland Security has been serving residents and municipalities notices that demand immediate access to land and declare the department has the right to demolish structures, bore holes, destroy plantings and crops, and take such other measures as the contractors of the Department of Homeland Security may consider necessary to prepare for construction of a fortified border wall. So far, some 600 property holders have been ordered to make their property available to government surveyors and construction crews.

TBC charges that Chertoff and DHS have been demanding that residents waive their property rights for six-month periods, and the department has offered paltry, non-negotiable $100 cash payments as compensation for appropriated land.

The TBC complaint said that the department had threatened to have condemned and seize the land of property holders who rejected the payments.