First border wall contract awarded for Laredo, Texas at $275 million

“I’ll bet my last dollar on possibility C.” (that a future Democrat Administration will just open the gates, and pull back the police).

That is what they will likely do. But just like the Trump Administration (to some degree) they will have to go step by step through a time consuming process of publishing new rules, and fighting court cases.

The political blowback from tearing down barrier is potentially too high for that to be feasible, so they will try to achieve their goals under the table - out of sight, with some plausible deniability they can use to mislead about their real intention.

Nevertheless, changing the terrain (with effective barrier) to significantly channelize people, and equipping the Border Patrol with loads of powerful technology is going to enable even fewer officers to be much more effective on the ground.

The Shelton Herald reports:

“When members of the government’s border wall team visited Laredo City Council in January, they mentioned that they had been granted the right of entry by about 40% of the affected landowners they have reached out to in the Laredo area. That number has likely increased.

This right of entry is for the government to be able to get onto private land in order to conduct surveys and see where the wall would be best aligned.”

Indications are that the Government has gotten serious this year, about exercising eminent domain to acquire the needed private land, in time to support the construction schedule. It has been a (the) major hold up in South Texas, but this year the effort has obviously ramped up considerably, especially when it comes to giving up on lengthy negotiations or chasing evasive contacts.

Many cases heading right up to a judge, where the Government’s authority is basically unchallengeable.

It looks like they have finally cracked the code on land acquisition in Texas, and are just going to do it.

Enough of the leadership has been replaced, that they now seem to effective folks (who will get it done) in place.

Early this year, Jared Kushner was charged with overseeing/troubleshooting the Wall effort, and the President reportedly made the decision to break the logjam there. “Take the land” he reportedly ordered.

When the Federal Government insists, it can literally take private land the same day. The power is plenary. Only the amount of compensation needs to be adjudicated.

So even though they are still going to courts in Texas, the timeframes are much shorter then they have been in previous years, which were mainly negotiating with the willing, and kicking the can down the road slowly with the unwilling.

I think we will see construction in earnest in the Rio Grande Valley this Summer, and extensive land acquisition in Texas through the rest of this year.

The Administration seems to be on track to get all the money obligated on contracts before the end of the year, so that the Program can complete, even should Democrats take the White House next year.

They well know that land acquisition can be a showstopper (President Trump himself was famously involved in a major eminent domain lawsuit in Atlantic City decades ago). So I think it likely that they intend to clear the field of land acquisition issues before the end of the year, for the same reason of protecting the Program, in the event of a Democrat winning the Presidential election in December.

So far, the revealed plan for Texas is to effectively wall off South Texas, from about 50 miles North of Laredo, all the way down to Gulf of Mexico (the remaining much smaller gaps can be heavily monitored and policed). They will also upgrade the barrier for a few miles around the El Paso, Del Rio and Eagle Pass urban areas.

Construction in Texas has lagged, but the money and the will seems to be there, to get something significant built.

One significant fact about much of the planned new border barrier in South Texas, is that Congress has specifically authorized it. The 2019 and 2020 appropriations were almost entirely designated for South Texas (RGV and Laredo Sectors). That shows that there is some particular bi-partisan political strength behind that build. Although it might be hard politically for them to admit it publicly, the elites down there really want it for security and development.

[$275 million new contract dropped onto the Wall yesterday.

Only $400 million was allocated for the Wall in all of 2017, and it didn’t even all get on contract until into 2018.

Now that is a routine amount for the weekly drop onto new contracts.

We are starting to see Wall going up, like never before. It is going to be glorious!]

Good news, indeed.

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