We know now from Donald Trump himself that his promise that Mexico was going to pay for that fucking wall was nothing more than a ruse to perk up the bored racists in his audience. It’s a $70 billion environmental disaster that a majority of American voters don’t want. But it’s a Friday, so let’s be generous for a moment. If—and that’s a big if—Trump manages to begin some sort of photo-op construction on a mile or two using U.S. taxpayer dollars, there’s still a question of how to build a wall on all that private land that doesn’t belong to the U.S. government in the first place. Yes, the federal government has the power of eminent domain, but that costs money, and no one has really discussed that specific amount.
So, Hawaii’s Mazie Hirono, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and all-around bad-ass, demanded some answers:
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) submitted a series of written questions on the topic of “Border Wall Land,” asking how DHS planned to get the land for the wall and how much it was prepared to play for it. While Hirono’s office says it has not yet received a response, ThinkProgress obtained a draft version of the department’s answers to her questions.
The draft response to Hirono explains that while it is “always DHS’ preference to acquire private property through voluntary sale,” in some cases “condemnation is the only method for acquiring the needed property.”
Asked how much the government is prepared to spend fighting landowners in court, the response text acknowledges, “[a]t this early stage, DHS cannot reasonably forecast total or final land acquisition costs associated with the border wall.” It goes on to state that the FY17 and proposed FY18 budgets “included a rough order of magnitude for real estate costs based on lessons learned from the border fence project,” but then concedes, “CBP cannot estimate or identify any specific or definitive real estate costs or requirements until CBP begins conducting the necessary planning and research.”
Translation: *shrug emoji*. And assuming they do come up with all that money, CBS News reported earlier this year that border residents would already be set to take the administration to court, a step that could stall the process with red tape for some time, or the end of Trump’s term, whichever comes first. Think Progress:
In October 2015, Trump vowed, “We’re going to build the wall. Hundred percent. And you know, so we’re going to build it. It will be paid for.” But apparently just how much Americans will have to pay to make it happen is another detail not yet worked out.