On Friday, Jared Kushner will host a meeting with military and administration officials to discuss the U.S. government take over of private land to build more sections of Trump’s wall.
The administration could file documents shortly thereafter; but, they have not confirmed how much they will compensate landowners for their property.
In normal eminent domain cases, “the government agrees on an amount of money before it seizes the land.” However, the Trump administration may “file under the Declaration of Taking Act in federal court in Texas, which could expedite the process for the government purchase of private land along the border.”
If the administration succeeds and wins expected legal challenges, “the title would automatically transfer to the government. The government has to name the price it expects to pay, but actual negotiations with the landowners about the price don’t begin until after the land is taken.”
Normally, the Declaration of Taking Act is reserved only for emergencies. Trump declared an emergency at our southern border but a federal judge ruled in October that Trump “violated federal law when he used his declaration of a national emergency to pull millions from military funding for building the wall. The ruling did not apply to other sources of funds, however.”
