Texans Refuse Generous Border Patrol Offer

Kerry Howley | March 24, 2008

If you've got property in the Rio Grande Valley, the U.S. Border Patrol will pay $100 to survey the land and decide whether to erect a hideous, vista-destroying gray wall on top of it. You can refuse, of course. And then they'll sue you.

Last December, a U.S. Border Patrol agent asked [Hilaria] Muniz to sign a paper allowing the government to survey his land for the border fence. Muniz, who doesn't read or write, refused. The government sued. The family sought help from rural legal aid lawyers.

Their attorney, Celestino Gallegos, said the government has also sued some 50 other landowners in the Rio Grande Valley. In each case, he said, the government demands unlimited access for six months and was willing to pay only $100 for the inconvenience.

"That was across the board for every single landowner," Gallegos said. "No matter if you had 100 acres or if you had — in the case of the Muniz family — a third of an acre, the access to it and any kind of damage that could be caused is only worth $100."

Whole NPR report here.