HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle
Expand

Trump’s Border Wall Is Destroying Land, Livelihoods, and Butterflies in the Rio Grande

Views:1027
@ReasonVids

The National Butterfly Center is directly in the path of Donald Trump's planned border wall. It will be cut in two—and some of its property may be taken through eminent domain.

---------------

Subscribe to our YouTube channel:

http://youtube.com/reasontv Like us on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine/

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason

Subscribe to our podcast at iTunes: https://goo.gl/az3a7a

Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.

----------------

"You may learn about eminent domain, but until you are in the crosshairs of the government, you don't understand how it really works," says Marianna Trevino-Wright, the director of the National Butterfly Center, a 100-acre private wildlife refuge located in Texas near the U.S. border with Mexico. "They invoke it, they take your land, and they do what they want."

The National Butterfly Center, or NABA, is directly in the path of Donald Trump's planned border wall. Part of the Rio Grande Valley Conservation Corridor, it's home to the largest concentration of butterflies in North America.

The border wall project is moving ahead in the Rio Grande Valley. In the 2018 omnibus spending bill, Congress authorized one component of the project, a 33-mile section of fencing running through the Valley. And the Department of Homeland Security is threatening to use eminent domain to seize the land.

The National Butterfly Center's land will be cut in two by the border wall—70 percent of the preserve will become contiguous with Mexico and difficult to access. The government is also planning to establish a "control zone" for monitoring illegal entrants, which will mean clearing up to 200 yards of vegetation, specifically planted to host butterflies, on the river side of the wall. That land could be taken through eminent domain.

"The border wall is doing what General Santa Anna couldn't do 150 years ago," says Trevino-Wright. "He couldn't push the border of Mexico north of the Rio Grande River, and that is what the border wall is doing."

Trevino-Wright says NABA's property rights are being trampled in other ways as well. Federal immigration law gives the agency the authority to search and patrol private property within 25 miles of the border without obtaining a warrant. "They drag tires, they have drones and helicopters, they have agents on foot, on bicycle, on dirt bike, on horse, on four-wheeler, in SUVs, on boat on our shores," she says. "Every kind of presence you can imagine."

The government doesn't have the authority to enter and alter private property in preparation for the border wall, but Trevino-Wright says that she encountered a group of government contractors on the Butterfly Center's property clearing foliage that had been planted to host butterflies. When she asked them what they were doing there, she was told a representative from U.S. Border Patrol would contact her. A few days later Manuel Padilla, who's the chief border patrol agent for the Rio Grande Valley, paid the Butterfly Center a visit.

"He showed up unannounced, in plain clothes, and his attache, and a uniformed border agent," says Trevino-Wright. Padilla presented plans for the border wall to Trevino-Wright, and according to her account, said the contractors would be back. This time he was accompanied by a "green uniformed presence."

NABA decided to take legal action, suing the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection on the grounds they have exceeded their authority.

"You know, private property is supposed to be for the owner and their enjoyment and use and purpose," Trevino-Wright says. "Well, we don't enjoy that here. Our land, according to Border Patrol, is theirs to do with as they please."

Video produced, shot, and edited by Mark McDaniel.

LOREN ELLIOTT/REUTERS/Newscom

JASON REED/REUTERS/Newscom

State Department/Newscom

Kelly West/TNS/Newscom

LOREN ELLIOTT/REUTERS/Newscom

Summer Days by Kai Engel is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Rate Sheet by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Thread of Clouds by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

The Stone Mansion by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Two in the Back by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Sino de Cobre by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
,
border wall
,
immigration
,
donald trump
,
conservation
,
wildlife
,
butterfly
,
eminent domain
,
national butterfly center
,
marianna trevino-wright
,
rio grande valley
    Thumbnail for Jinx the Anarchist Sex Worker Goes to Washington7:41
    Jinx the Anarchist Sex Worker Goes to Washington
    ReasonVids
    1099 views
    Thumbnail for As Sweden celebrates its national day, they choose to open the celebration of 🇸🇪 national day with Arabic song.0:29
    As Sweden celebrates its national day, they choose to open the celebration of 🇸🇪 national day with Arabic song.
    bestofvoatxyz
    859 views
    Thumbnail for Generational Swindle: How DC is Screwing over Millennials6:26
    Generational Swindle: How DC is Screwing over Millennials
    ReasonVids
    813 views
    Thumbnail for How 13 Props Are Made For Movies And TV1:00
    How 13 Props Are Made For Movies And TV
    koleslow
    1104 views
    Thumbnail for Bollywood vs. Bin Laden: Why radical Islam fears pop culture5:00
    Bollywood vs. Bin Laden: Why radical Islam fears pop culture
    ReasonVids
    1018 views
    Thumbnail for What Has Happened To Home Depot...11:39
    What Has Happened To Home Depot...
    AOUisgay
    529 views
    Thumbnail for Milwaukee Taxi Rally and Press Conference (April 16, 2013)8:19
    Milwaukee Taxi Rally and Press Conference (April 16, 2013)
    IJvids
    1011 views
    Thumbnail for Mark "I am the majority" Robinson triggers the democrats during hearing.4:01
    Mark "I am the majority" Robinson triggers the democrats during hearing.
    bestofpatriots.win
    1466 views
    Thumbnail for The Response To Coronavirus 'Is Central Planning on Steroids': Rep. Thomas Massie38:26
    The Response To Coronavirus 'Is Central Planning on Steroids': Rep. Thomas Massie
    ReasonVids
    983 views
    Thumbnail for Just innocent covid comedy.4:06
    Just innocent covid comedy.
    AOU
    1796 views
    Thumbnail for A message from a former Army psyops officer1:10
    A message from a former Army psyops officer
    AOU
    1302 views
    Thumbnail for Welcome 2024 !! 🎉 Happy New Year Songs 2024 🎉 Happy New Year Music 2024 | Happy Christmas1:00
    Welcome 2024 !! 🎉 Happy New Year Songs 2024 🎉 Happy New Year Music 2024 | Happy Christmas
    invidious
    319 views
    Thumbnail for What's Your Take on IP & Net Neutrality?2:41
    What's Your Take on IP & Net Neutrality?
    ReasonVids
    827 views
    Thumbnail for Haha didn't walmart shut down all their Chicongo locations?2:06
    Haha didn't walmart shut down all their Chicongo locations?
    AOUisgay
    511 views
    Thumbnail for Philadelphia: No Love for the Homeless2:31
    Philadelphia: No Love for the Homeless
    ReasonVids
    846 views
    Thumbnail for Americans Believe Most Politicians Abuse Their Power: Reason-Rupe Poll April 20141:18
    Americans Believe Most Politicians Abuse Their Power: Reason-Rupe Poll April 2014
    ReasonVids
    962 views
    Thumbnail for Rabbi Fights Feds to Open Pot Shop3:35
    Rabbi Fights Feds to Open Pot Shop
    ReasonVids
    851 views
    Thumbnail for Obama's Foreign Policy Approval Plummets, Americans Oppose Unilateral Syria Intervention3:43
    Obama's Foreign Policy Approval Plummets, Americans Oppose Unilateral Syria Intervention
    ReasonVids
    1020 views
    Thumbnail for Is South by Southwest Too Popular for Startups?4:28
    Is South by Southwest Too Popular for Startups?
    ReasonVids
    979 views
    Thumbnail for Hersheys: The Day is Ruined0:05
    Hersheys: The Day is Ruined
    bestofvoatxyz
    694 views
    Thumbnail for Barack W. Bush?4:34
    Barack W. Bush?
    ReasonVids
    952 views
    Thumbnail for Spider encounter - Australia 0:27
    Spider encounter - Australia
    bestofupgoat
    404 views
    Thumbnail for 3 Louisiana State Troopers suspended after WVUE Fox 8 News investigation | NOLA.com7:19
    3 Louisiana State Troopers suspended after WVUE Fox 8 News investigation | NOLA.com
    invidious
    274 views
    Thumbnail for Welcome to the metaverse0:59
    Welcome to the metaverse
    bestofvoatxyz
    844 views
    Thumbnail for how about that!0:34
    how about that!
    bestofupgoat
    93 views

points

Permalink
Reply
libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
,
border wall
,
immigration
,
donald trump
,
conservation
,
wildlife
,
butterfly
,
eminent domain
,
national butterfly center
,
marianna trevino-wright
,
rio grande valley
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle