Trump's border wall deal you can't refuse
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
This sign hangs on the fence of Charlie Angell's property and many others are hung around Presidio, Texas. Photo: Brittany Gibson/Axios
REDFORD, Texas — The Trump administration delivered a blunt message to angry landowners at a rare in-person meeting on Tuesday:
- Work with us on the border wall, or we'll build it anyway.
Why it matters: The Trump administration's pressure to show progress on border wall mileage in west Texas is leading to rushed and sloppy work that's infuriating local residents, ranchers and the tourism industry.
- Local residents told Axios they've heard that the goal is to finish construction as soon as December 2027.
- Since the start of the year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been mailing out packages — sometimes with inaccurate survey lines or owner information — offering people between $1,000 and $5,000 for initial access, according to landowners who have received these packets.
- The packets list three options for landowners: all of them end up with U.S. Customs and Border Protection getting the land for construction through degrees of cooperation or eminent domain.
Zoom in: The Trump administration has done as much as possible to fast-track the construction process in the Big Bend sector, home to the national and state parks of the same name.
- Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem signed 28 environmental and cultural preservation waivers to speed up the project, citing Trump's executive order that there's an invasion at the southern border.
- Construction companies are rushing to set up "man camps" and rent out local RV parks with plans to house hundreds of workers. Their goal is to start work in June, which will coincide with the start of the rainy season and regular flash flooding.
Between the lines: Two representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers were clear about their mission during Tuesday's meeting in Redford, population 71.
- "If the administration has a plan, and we try to coordinate with a landowner and the landowner doesn't respond to us, that's a ... a message [that] you don't agree," Marvin Makarwich, who was escorted by a CBP agent, told a group of mostly elderly landowners in the small town.
- "But you're also not having communications to try to figure out if there's a way to do something different."
- Axios was present at the meeting at the invitation of local landowners.
Makarwich's message follows letters, emails and phone calls made across the riverfront communities since the start of the year.
- The Trump administration's "preferred and ideal route" is for land owners to sign a "Right of Entry for Construction" form, giving away total property access for surveys and construction for a negotiated price "once construction is completed" the letter says.
- "It allows us to work collaboratively with you, complete construction as quickly as possible, and then pay you for the fair market value of any property rights CBP determines it needs going forward," the letter says.
The intrigue: Despite not always being accurate, the information packet comes with a blank W-9 that can be filled out for easy payment.
- "$5,000 is a lot of money around here," said Jim Stephens, who owns two plots that could be impacted in Ruidosa, Texas.
- He said that money would make a difference in his life, but it's not enough to get him to sign away any access rights.
- Stephens hasn't received any paperwork from the Army Corps of Engineers, but a contractor called and reached his wife to ask for staging access. The answer was "hell no!"
- "I've seen how government staging areas look after they leave," he added.
Zoom in: Another Army Corps of Engineers officer told Presidio ranch owner Yolanda Alvarado that the border wall on her property could potentially have a gate. And she would have the key.
- The wall would leave Alvarado's uncle's home on the Mexican side of the wall and the family cemetery on the American side with their cattle cut off from the river banks.
- "You're putting my life in danger," Alvarado said of the gate-and-key proposal, saying she thought she would become a target of the cartels if that was their solution.
Friction point: Despite the pressures to advance the project, the west Texas residents and elected officials have successfully axed hundreds of miles of steel wall from the plans through the state and national park.
- Private landowners are the next frontier of the fight and are trying to preserve their river access, plot by plot in the rural desert region.
The other side: CBP did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
- The Army Corps of Engineers referred Axios to CBP.
The bottom line: The border wall remains one of Trump's biggest policy priorities with CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott recently visiting the border.
- Scott told Congress last week that almost 69 new miles of wall and water barriers have been built out of nearly 2,000.
