“this is going to the courts. Supposedly for years.
You might tweet that to President Trump.”
Some of the cases from from the Bush-era Secure Fence Act program are still in court.
They are only arguing about the final price, and their butt hurt. It did not stop construction - those wall segments are over a decade old.
Eminent domain is exercised routinely at the Federal, State and local level - it is not a showstopper, not some silver bullet. No road is built without using it. It is common. The Army Corps of Engineers, which is contracting the wall construction for DHS, has routinely included the exercise of eminent domain in their public works projects for over a century.
Of all people, a world class billionaire real estate developer would be quite familiar with eminent domain issues. Donald Trump has been personally involved with eminent domain issues for many decades. The heads of the whole Federal Government have sat in cabinet meetings with President Trump lighting a fire under their asses to get the wall built, and identify any potential delays - and periodically firing senior officials who fail to perform.
Really, what is the chance that this will be some kind of surprise to them all?
Given all that as it may, years and years, Bush wasn’t desperate to get a “wall’ up as critical to his re-election prospects.