Eminent Domain

I'm so old I remember when eminent domain that didn't involve taking the homes of black people to build urban highways really made conservatives mad.

Customs and Border Protection, which is part of Homeland Security, doesn't yet own most of the land where it plans to build the wall. In fact, Wolf's photo op was staged on a half-mile section of the levee that was only recently acquired by the federal government. Hidalgo County land records show that much of the property needed to complete that stretch of wall is still in private hands.

Disorderly property records, complications with landowners and a cumbersome condemnation process have slowed progress to a snail's pace. That's despite an army of federal land specialists trying to rush the process to please the president.