The federal government has won the latest round in the U.S.-Mexico border’s Frankenfence battle. On Monday, Jan. 14, U.S. District Judge Alia Moses Ludlum ordered the city of Eagle Pass, Texas, “to ’surrender’ 233 acres of city-owned land” to Uncle Sam for fence construction, according to the Associ­ated Press. “The Justice Department sued the municipality for access to the land. … The government had warned the city, which opposes the fence, it would sue under eminent domain laws to secure access to the property, declaring it is ‘taking’ the property for 180 days,” reports AP, adding, “The Justice Department is expected to file 102 lawsuits against landowners for access to property the Border Patrol and Army Corps of Engineers want to survey to decide where to put border fencing or other barriers.” According to Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, the government filed a dozen of those suits last Friday against landowners in Cameron County, of which Brownsville is the county seat.

The strongest opposition to the 700 miles of fence planned for the Texas portion of the U.S.-Mexico border has been east of Eagle Pass in the Rio Grande Valley, which has a history of particularly close ties to its sister cities and towns on the Mexican side of the border, and is home to multiple sensitive ecological areas the wall is slated to run right through.

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