'I'm very upset': Furious Texas rancher says Trump is 'secretly' trying to steal land to build 'the wall'
Ranchers in Laredo, Texas, are furious as they're learning President Donald Trump is stealing their land away to build the "wall," he says, has already been built.
During a campaign stop in Louisiana Thursday, Trump said that his wall is "going up faster than anyone thought possible." But when probed about it, Trump's own top border official confirmed none of the wall has been built, in fact, all that has been built replaced existing structures.
Only four miles of the area where the Trump "wall" is going is owned by the federal government already. So, the White House is now calling land-owners on the Texas border to beg them to cooperate with their landgrab.
Surveyors are being sent in to outline how much will be taken from Texans through eminent domain.
David Acevedo is a Texas rancher on the border that has owned the land for three generations of his family after his grandfather migrated to the U.S. after Pancho Villa's revolution, over 100 years ago. His grandfather then purchased the land and began his own ranch there.
"We got a phone call to attend a meeting in their south station heading out to our property," Acevedo said. "And I felt it was a little — 20 owners probably showed up to this meeting that they invited. I had communicated with other neighbors of mine to go out to the meeting because there was going to be a meeting discussing the border wall. And it was my surprise that whoever was on that list was allowed into the meeting, and no media was allowed in. And none of the neighbors were allowed in, only the people that they called which was about a group of 20."
"When they gave us the survey and site assessments, they provided a little site-plan for the property, and they showed pretty much what area was going to be affected," he continued. "In our case, it was probably about 20 percent of our property of the 180 acres. It all depends they were saying that it was all going to be referencing the river and how would it affect the floodplain in the area to depend on how much property was going to be affected."
Acevedo said he was "very upset" and specifically bothered by all of the secrecy surrounding it.
"I wish people could come out and take a look at our place," he said. "You know, it is a beautiful place. The scenery is great. Recreation is great. There is plenty of wildlife, you know we've been farming and growing hay for cattle production for many, many years now and I don't see how they can say hey, we want to go over there and build a wall there."
Watch his full conversation with MSNBC below:
Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa poll of the Iowa Caucuses (screengrab)[/caption]
Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa poll of the Iowa Caucuses (screengrab)