By Rafael Carranza | The Republic
Two Democratic congressmen have drafted legislation they say would prevent Texans from surrendering their land for President Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego and Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who drafted the Protecting the Property Rights of Border Landowners Act, said they plan to introduce it next week, hopefully with some Republican support.
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The legislation would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to prohibit the U.S. attorney general and the Department of Homeland Security “from using eminent domain to acquire land for the purpose of constructing a wall, or other physical barrier, along the international border between the United States and Mexico.”
“We do not need a border wall that raids the land of private citizens, ransacks the businesses and ranches of hard-working Texans and strips property rights away from Americans,” said O’Rourke, who represents El Paso and its surrounding borderlands.
