Border Fence Class Action

The Texas Border Coalition is filing a class action lawsuit against the federal government in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. today. TBC announced its intention to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection over the construction of $50 billion U.S.-Mexico border wall at a special meeting at the McAllen Convention Center on April 15.

The lawsuit asserts that DHS and CBP have violated:

* Border landowners’ statutory right to negotiation over a “reasonable” price prior to the taking of property for the purpose of constructing segments of fence along the 1,200-mile stretch of Texas-Mexico border.

* The due process rights of property owners by failing to issue and make public any rules, regulations, or directives on how negotiations should take place or how the government will determine a “reasonable” price for the property it wishes to seize.

* The equal protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment by giving certain politically well-connected property owners a pass on having the border fence built on their property.

* The 2008 DHS Appropriation law and the due process rights of property owners by failing to issue and make public any rules, regulations, or directives on how required “consultation” with property owners will take place and how the concerns of property owners will be considered.

In addition, the lawsuit alleges that the Secretary of Homeland Security has unlawfully failed to exercise his discretion as required by the 2008 DHS Appropriation Act to select the most practical and effective locations to build the border wall, rather than the locations set in the now-repealed provisions of the Secure Fence Act of 2006.

KJ