Thread: Records Show Where Trump Plans to Build Texas Border Wall

The 15 segments of wall would tear through three wildlife areas in the Rio Grande Valley and put more homes and other structures in jeopardy than previously known, the documents show


The map shows planned border wall sections for South Texas. The ratings appear to be based on topography and the legal difficulty of taking over the land. City of Roma, Starr County, Project RGV-002 not included in this map rendition. MAP DESIGNED BY JEN REEL, BASED ON ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS' MAP ACQUIRED UNDER FOIA

Documents obtained by the Observer offer new insights into the Trump administration’s plans for a border wall in portions of the Rio Grande Valley. A map produced in May by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shows where the administration expects to build 33 miles of wall in 15 different segments, including portions that would tear through three wildlife areas. The documents also reveal a rating system the administration is using to rank the difficulty of building each segment, based on the topography and the legal difficulty of taking over the land.

“Nice RV park, many retirees live there permanently,” reads the entry for a nearly 2-mile segment that would cut off the Chimney Park RV Resort, the historic La Lomita Chapel and the Riverside Club, a popular hangout for winter Texans. “Western half of segment will impacts [sic] upward of 100 homeowners.” The Army Corps rates building the section as “most challenging.”

According to the documents, the wall would bisect the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, a 797-acre preserve that’s one of the top birding destinations in North America. Walls would also run through the neighboring National Butterfly Center, a private nature sanctuary that recently announced it would sue the government to stop construction, as well as the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. The Army Corps of Engineers rates the Santa Ana refuge as an “easy” location, because the land is already owned by the federal government.

In early July, the Observer revealed the government’s plan to build a 2.9-mile levee wall through Santa Ana, one of the nation’s oldest protected wildlife habitats. Located about 10 miles southeast of McAllen, the refuge is home to at least 400 bird species and 450 species of plants, and it hosts both the rare Texas Sabal Palm and the endangered ocelot.

The documents label the wall planned for Santa Ana as a “pilot project.” The levee wall there will consist of a concrete base, which will replace the existing earthen levee, topped by an 18-foot steel bollard fence. The Santa Ana segment is projected to cost $45 million — approximately $15 million per mile — and is slated to be completed by July 2019, according to Army Corps of Engineers records.


The 2.9 mile, 32-foot high hybrid levee wall planned for Santa Ana as a $45 million “pilot project.” A concrete base will replace the existing earthen levee, topped by an 18-foot steel bollard fence. U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS/FOIA REQUEST

The government also has more in mind for Santa Ana than just a wall. An Army Corps PowerPoint presentation shows plans for a cleared 150-foot “enforcement zone” that would run south of the levee wall. The enforcement zone would include an all-weather road bordered by underground fiber-optic motion sensors.

Emails between government engineers and employees from Michael Baker International, the construction firm working on the project, detail the installation of 120-foot-tall video surveillance towers and lights to illuminate the enforcement zone.

“With this type of construction it would be difficult for Santa Ana to stay open,” said Scott Nicol, co-chair of the Sierra Club’s borderlands team. Nicols requested the documents under the Freedom of Information Act and shared them with the Observer. “The 150-foot cleared area [for the enforcement zone] is bigger than the 60-foot wide strips of land they condemned for the border walls 10 years ago.”


The 150-foot “enforcement zone” increases the areas of the Santa Ana refuge that will be cleared. U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS/FOIA REQUEST

A 150-foot enforcement zone is also being considered for other areas. The zone’s footprint appears to put homes and other structures in jeopardy. For a segment near Pharr, the Army Corps of Engineers’ analysis states “Many homes within 150’ … Church and cemetery directly impacted by enforcement zone.”

Records also show that the wall is behind schedule. The government planned to begin construction by breaking ground at Santa Ana as early as October 2017. However, other schedules drafted by the Army Corps of Engineers indicate that work at the refuge could begin as late as next summer.

In May, Congress approved $341 million for repairs or replacement of existing border walls — a fraction of the $1 billion President Donald Trump requested to build his “big, beautiful” wall. For the Rio Grande Valley, $49 million was earmarked to install 35 gates in the gaps between existing wall segments. If Border Patrol decides to keep the gates closed, access could be restricted to the Sabal Palm Audubon Sanctuary, the homes of several landowners who live south of the wall, acres of farmland and the Nature Conservancy’s Lennox Foundation Southmost Preserve in Brownsville.

Nationwide, at least 654 miles of barriers already exist along the nearly 2,000-mile border, but they are primarily in California and Arizona, where most land is federally owned. Attempts to build the wall on private land in Texas a decade ago touched off protests and court battles between landowners and the U.S. government over land condemnations. Several legal cases are still pending.


A segment of levee wall completed in 2011. U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS/FOIA REQUEST

This time, battles over the border wall could be even more contentious as the Trump administration targets an increasing number of landowners and protected wildlife habitats.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection declined to comment for this story.

Congressman Filemon Vela, a Brownsville Democrat whose district includes the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, has been a vocal opponent of Trump’s wall, even making international headlines when he told the president he could “shove it up your ass.” Vela was cautiously optimistic that Democrats would block funding again for Trump’s wall in the 2018 budget.

“Trump will only get his border wall funding if Democratic leadership capitulates to his demands,” Vela said. “We can only hope that Senator Schumer and Leader Pelosi will draw a line in the sand and oppose money for even an inch of border wall construction.”

https://www.texasobserver.org/map-tr...cations-texas/

Mexico is such a PIA...wish we had a big Grand Canyon split down the border from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

Our country is in jeopardy now and for our future. We must build this wall and protect our borders and our country. Mexico cannot be trusted, full of terrorists, gangs, cartel and God knows what in that corrupt cesspool.

BUILD THE WALL! MEXICO IS NOT A GOOD NEIGHBOR...NEIGHBORS FROM HELL.

Congressman Filemon Vela, a Brownsville Democrat whose district includes the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, has been a vocal opponent of Trump’s wall, even making international headlines when he told the president he could “shove it up your ass.”

I think it's a safe bet that many of his constituents have family illegally in the country and I'm sure they enjoy being able to travel back and forth across the border with little to no resistance. Illegal immigration has a huge negative impact on the whole country. This isn't just about the communities located in the border counties.

I realize politicians are elected to look out for what is best for their constituents, however, what's best for the your constituents has to be balanced against what is best for the country as whole. Allowing job taking illegals, drug mules, potential murderers, and other malcontents in the country is a huge disservice to the hundreds of millions of folks that don't live along the border.

Do you actually have a conscience, Rep. Filemon?

Very few of our lawmakers and enforcers, from bottom to top, have a conscience, or we wouldn't have this situation.

I realize how expensive it would be to follow the Rio Grande, but it looks like we are ceding a lot of land to Mexico with this fence.

Will there be any facilities for the irrigation water the Rio Grande Valley gets from the river?

Oh, well, it looks like Texas may have just thwarted the 90K acre land grab along the Red River -

A fence does not cede land.

Just me, but I think it does. It certainly fences it off from the American people and unless the border patrol is going to set up shop on the Mexican side of the wall, it does.