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Trump’s wall facing legal challenges from Texas landowners

Thursday, 10 January 2019 2:01 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 10 January 2019 2:06 AM ]

A Border Patrol unit patrols the Rio Grande that separates El Paso, Texas in the United States from Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua State, Mexico, on January 9, 2019. (AFP photos)

Landowners in the US state of Texas are challenging President Donald Trump’s promised border wall with the expectation that their land will be seized for construction.

The Trump administration would have to confront the legal challenges before having a wall on the southern border with Mexico, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

“You could give me a trillion dollars and I wouldn’t take it,” landowner Eloisa Cavazos, who owns property along the Rio Grande river, told the AP. “It’s not about money.”

Funding for the wall has led to a budget impasse, causing the ongoing partial government shutdown despite several rounds of negotiations with Democrats.

Earlier in the day, the president ripped Democratic leaders, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, after yet again another failed round of negotiations.

“Just left a meeting with Chuck and Nancy, a total waste of time. I asked what is going to happen in 30 days if I quickly open things up, are you going to approve Border Security which includes a Wall or Steel Barrier? Nancy said, NO. I said bye-bye, nothing else works,” Trump tweeted after the meeting.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) (R), House majority leader Steny Hoyer (2nd R), and Senator Dick Durbin (L) walk away after a meeting with Donald Trump about ending the partial government shutdown, on January 9, 2019 in Washington, DC.

Trump demands over $5 billion, for which he is "proud" to have shut down the government but Democrats are not offering more than $1.3 billion.

"It's cold out here and the temperature was not much warmer in the Situation Room," Pelosi told reporters outside the White House. "The president stomped out of the meeting when he said to me, 'Will you support a wall?' And I said no… Now they're trying to mischaracterize what he actually said. But that's par for the course with going to the White House."

Schumer also asserted that Trump "sort of slammed the table," adding that "he couldn't get his way and he just walked out of the meeting."

The abrupt ending of the meeting was acknowledged by Vice President Mike Pence.

US Vice President Mike Pence speaks alongside House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (L) to the media following a meeting between Democratic leaders and US President Donald Trump about the partial government shutdown at the White House in Washington, DC, January 9, 2019.

"The president made clear today he is going to stand firm to achieve his priorities," he said. “We heard once again that Democratic leaders are unwilling to even negotiate."

According to Pelosi, "You cannot come to a conclusion if the president of the United States says 'my way or the highway, there's nothing to negotiate, either agree with me or it's over.' "

The White House reiterated earlier in the day that Trump may still declare a national emergency although he refused to do so during his Tuesday night prime time speech.

"How pathetic is his argument if he doesn't have confidence that he can prevail in the negotiation if he has to shut down the government to strengthen his hand," Pelosi said.

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