RECENT POLLS SHOW THE BORDER WALL IS LESS & LESS POPULAR

….The Border Wall with Mexico, and a Border Patrol tower

 

Most Americans are angry at property being taken for such “broad government use”.

 

Remember when Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign and he promised to build “a great, big, beautiful wall on our Southern border.”

 

Since those days about 17 months ago, the pundits and scholars have pointed out "The Wall" would be extremely expensive, ineffective, and harmful to the local ecosystem and economy.

 

But as usual, Trump still doubles down on his promise to build an “impenetrable border wall”.

 

What you haven’t been hearing is how upset those individuals and corporations that have property on the southern border, how upset they are about how the US Government would be using Trump’s favorite: “eminent domain”, for securing property to build his infamous “Wall”.

 

The conventional wisdom says that should Trump become president, (which is becoming less and less possible), support for the wall is expected to plummet, once people see that building the wall would require taking thousands of properties from ordinary homeowners and small businesses, plus it would cost billions of tax-payer dollars

 

Since Trump began this crusade, the polls have said that Trump has been making the border wall less and less popular.

 

Today, the border between the US and Mexico is 1,954 miles long. Large chunks of land along that border, specifically in Texas, they are privately owned. Building the wall would require the federal government to take and pay for that property from hundreds of American citizens living along the southern border.

 

And it is important to understand that this attitude against the wall is not new-news.

 

In 2006, when Congress passed the Secure Fence Act, the federal government then built approximately 650 miles of fencing along the Southern border. Roughly 100 miles of this were in Texas, where the government had to take property from more than 400 border residents.

In a recent article from a survey along the border, it was found that government’s use of eminent domain or the “taking of private property for public use”  is highly unpopular in the best of circumstances. It’s extremely unpopular when the public benefit isn’t completely clear.  People are more likely to support property takings for projects that will be used by, or at least will be "open to the general public".

 

Taking private property for a potentially ugly, high wall that has a space on both sides of the wall designated as “no-man’s land”, and off limits to all human activity, this approach is failing.  The border wall is not seen as directly benefiting anyone in the immediate area, not to mention the anticipated tax payer cost of up to $25 Billion.  This has caused the building of the border wall to continue losing support.

 

Yes, the people that do not live near the border, they think the wall is a good idea, but they aren’t required to live “with the wall” and what comes with it.

 

Having the government take private property has always been unpopular no matter what.  But respondents near the border were much more opposed to, and totally angry at property being taken for such“broad government use”.

 

In a survey taken with those people living near the border, including those that owned border property, almost 100% of those questioned were not only against eminent domain for any broad use, they were actually angry if property were to be taken for a border wall.

 

What was surprising is what those people cared about was how the government would use the property. Opposition to the wall didn’t grow from sympathy for individuals forced from their homes, and the people cared about why property is being taken, not what kind of property is being taken.

 

So, how did they look at Trump’s proposed “Border Wall”?

 

Those along the border already seem to have an overall distrust of the government.  These individuals are opposed to government takings of all kinds, but especially to broad-use takings. And so, some of those who support Trump because of his “outsider” status,  might also be angry about his takings property for a border wall.

Trump already has a long history of using eminent domain for his own private gain, so there seems to be little reason to suspect he wouldn’t use it to build a border wall.

 

In the early 1990s Trump asked Atlantic City’s Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) to take properties from several homeowners so he could build a limousine parking lot for his Trump Taj Mahal Casino.  When that was challenged, Trump and the CRDA lost in state court.

 

In 1994, Trump lobbied the city of Bridgeport, Conn. for taking waterfront properties from five small business to sell it to Trump Enterprises Connecticut.  This way, Trump could develop the land into offices and an entertainment destination. That plan also failed.

 

Trump even tried to use this power overseas by attempting to force individuals living near his golf course in Scotland to give up their homes so he could expand his development.  Another failed Trump plan.

 

Trump's Scotish Turnberry Golf Course

 

And finally, in 2005, Trump was asked about the Supreme Court’s widely reviled decision in Kelo v. New London, which declared it constitutional for governments to take property for economic development. Trump answer: “I happen to agree with it 100%. If you have a person living in an area that’s not even necessarily a good area, and … government wants to build a tremendous economic development, where a lot of people are going to be put to work and … create thousands upon thousands of jobs and beautification and lots of other things, I think it happens to be good.”

 

But if Trump wins and he tries to build a border wall, it is pretty clear that many Americans, especially those near the border will likely disagree with Trump.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016