Representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) were in Presidio County last week for initial face-to-face meetings with Big Bend area landowners about the construction of border walls on their property.
While U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is leading the border wall charge, USACE is the agency tasked with handling real estate and property acquisition for the project. CBP confirmed that USACE is also in the area researching title and deed records.
The Army Corps presence comes a couple of months after CBP first sent letters to landowners along a 175-mile stretch of the Rio Grande from Hudspeth to Presidio counties seeking authorization for border wall construction. CBP did not respond to a request for comment on how many Big Bend area landowners have signed those documents, known as Right of Entry for Construction or ROE-C forms.
David Keller, leader of a landowner coalition for local opposition group No Big Bend Wall, said landowners who have already agreed to let the government build on their land are likely few and far between given the widespread, bipartisan opposition to the project.
“Agreements with landowners — if they've gotten any — are spotty,” Keller said. “They’ve definitely not gotten a full block of landowners up and down the line.”
Keller said his group has identified about 330 affected landowners along the 175-mile stretch of border wall. 60-70 of them have signed up to receive more information from No Big Bend Wall, he said.
The ROE-C documents explain that if an agreement between the landowner and the federal government cannot be reached over border wall construction, eminent domain proceedings will be initiated in order to seize land for the project. Barron Adler, an Austin-based law firm specializing in eminent domain, has agreed to represent Big Bend area landowners if eminent cases are filed against them in federal district court, Keller said.
Some landowners are now receiving “Right of Entry for Survey and Site Assessment” documents, copies of which were obtained by Marfa Public Radio. The forms ask landowners to give government employees and contractors “temporary right of entry” onto their property to conduct property surveys, appraisals and environmental assessments like water and soil samples.
As the Texas Observer reports, land surveys are typically the first step in the property condemnation process, and the ROE-C documents offering landowners up to $5,000 for immediate construction access are a new, more aggressive tactic being used by the Trump administration.
Lack of transparency from CBP causes fear and confusion among landowners
Some Big Bend area landowners, like Diana Valles and her siblings, have authorized border wall construction out of fear, Valles said in an interview.
Valles said the siblings received a “scary” and “threatening” letter from CBP in mid-February asking for permission to build the wall on their property in Presidio that runs from FM170 to the levee. The letter, she said, urged the family to respond with a signature in just five days.
“ We figured, ‘Okay, we'll just play along with them just so that we don't end up losing everything,’” Valles said. “But we found ourselves in a position where we're like, ‘Oh my god, what did we do?’”
Valles said the family regretted signing, and after a No Big Bend Wall landowner meeting decided to reach out to an attorney to see if they could revoke their permission. She and her siblings have since hired an attorney who advised them to send back the $2,500 check from the USACE and formally withdraw from the first set of documents they signed.
“We're able to take that step back to go back to the beginning and hopefully start over,” Valles said.
The Valles’ no longer live full time in the area, and make collective decisions on family property, which complicates things, Valles said — a situation that is not unique to them.
In some cases, convoluted land ownership along the Rio Grande is making it hard for USACE and CBP to reach the right landowners.
In Redford, one of the oldest communities along the river, it’s not unusual for sections of land - 640 acres - to be subdivided into, in one case, up to 82 individual parcels, according to Presidio County’s Chief Appraiser Cynthia Ramirez. Surveys are also lacking, meaning it's hard to tell exactly who owns what.
Army Corps representatives held one-on-one meetings with landowners at the Border Patrol station in Presidio last week. They also met with Redford landowner and river outfitter Charlie Angell, whose property contains the Polvo site, a former Jumano settlement and Spanish mission — a registered state archeological landmark that is also listed on the National Register of Historic places. USACE also went door knocking in Redford to make contact with more individuals.
Redford landowner Esteban Mesa told Marfa Public Radio that he met with USACE representatives on Thursday and received a ROE-S document. He said he showed them around his property and made his concerns and overall opposition to the border wall known.
“I hope it falls on open ears, on sympathetic ears,” Mesa said.
Several people that met with USACE representatives last week told Marfa Public Radio that they were assured their questions and concerns would be relayed back to CBP for review.
Redford area landowner Joe Pineda, who has not yet met with the Army Corps, is concerned about how the wall will impact flooding, landowner’s access to their water rights and the groundwater withdrawal needed for wall construction. He said he also fears for the destruction of family cemeteries on land his ancestors have inhabited since the 1870s.
“They are taking away things that are your rights and your heritage — and things that were there in place — they waive them,” Pineda said. “What does that say about our country?”
Locals worry about cultural resource and environmental destruction
Keller himself met with Army Corps representatives last week for a meeting about land he owns along the border in which they told him they estimated they are now in contact with 80 to 90% of landowners along the project area, he said. In that meeting he offered his expertise as an archeologist to help the agency locate sites along the La Junta Archeological District.
“ Just the fact that they were taking notes and that they were supposedly passing this information up the line, that was what I wanted to hear,” Keller said. “Even though I don't have any faith that it's gonna make any difference, I'm going to give them everything I know about what we stand to lose in the off chance that maybe it will make a difference.”
He said he was surprised to learn that USACE workers are collecting information for CBP on where archaeological sites and family cemeteries are located considering environmental and cultural resource laws have been waived to expedite border wall construction.
In the meeting, Keller said the Army Corps representatives told him the project is still in its preliminary stages and that the government is a year out from offering purchase agreements to landowners. The representatives told him that border wall construction could happen sooner where landowners have already given authorization, and that the entire project could proceed at different times for different segments.
“ They said basically they're looking for swaths where they have four or five or six miles where they can get started because that's worth a contractor's time,” Keller said.
Construction firms Barnard Inc. and Fisher Sand & Gravel have been awarded around $3 billion for border wall construction in the Big Bend region. While wall construction hasn’t officially begun, steps are being taken to move the project forward.
Evidence of markers for ground and LiDAR surveys — remote sensing technology that determines ranges — as well as Army Corps datums, fixed reference points, have been spotted in the region primarily on state-owned public rights of way.
The Culberson County Groundwater Conservation District is currently considering a proposal from Pepe Ybarra, the owner of Pecan Grove Farms, to provide water to a 500-person “man camp” to house border wall workers. According to the district, Ybarra is permitted to pump up to 1,817 acre-feet of water per year. He is seeking to enter into a settlement agreement with the district that would allow him to use the remainder he doesn’t use for irrigation, roughly 1,000 acre-feet, for commercial uses for the facility.
In a meeting last week, groundwater district board members heard from several Lobo area residents who expressed concern about their families’ safety, strained emergency medical services and aquifer decline if the man camp is built.
“ That is a burden on our resources that we all use and it can be devastating for small communities like this,” Lobo resident Jennifer Foreman said at the meeting. “ How does he weigh [the] financial benefit he will get from a man camp on his property versus the risk to the water table for everybody else who lives there?”
During the meeting, Ybarra said the man camp’s water consumption would be 25,000 gallons per day. Anticipating criticism of his plan, he said the border wall is going to be built “whether we like it or not.”
Board members did not cast a vote on the matter but are set to meet again this Thursday.
CBP has meanwhile extended a public comment period for the Big Bend border wall plan to May 22, according to Hudspeth County officials.
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