Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently announced his commitment to continuing where former President Donald Trump left off on building a border wall between the US and Mexico.
The state of Texas has allocated more than $1B to border security, and this border wall will be financed within this budget. However, some believe that this budget in its entirety is not enough to finance this project.
State Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, says “The border wall, as far as the efforts under Trump have shown, is…going to cost something like $100 million a mile”.
According to the state transportation departments website, this border is over 1,200 miles.
It seems that Abbott has reached a number of obstacles in reaching his goal. One of these obstacles is the issue of land.
CUNY Brooklyn College Associate Professor of Political Science Anna Law argues, “It’s complicated. It’s very complicated,” The land in question is owned by the state, federal government, and a number of private owners. While the Texas Land Commissioner has authorized use of the state land, there are still concerns with the federal and private land.
Gov. Abbott has sent a letter to President Joe Biden demanding the return of Texas land taken during previous federal attempts at the border wall under former Pres. Trump.
“I am demanding that the Biden Administration immediately return to Texans land that the federal government took to build the wall,” says Abbott.
However, while Abbott awaits a response regarding the federally owned land, there are issues with privately owned land.
Abbott says that private owners can voluntarily give up the land to be used for building this border wall.
With these potential budgetary restrictions and land ownership issues, it is clear that building this border wall is up in the air.
