The New Mexico Land Commissioner is blocking the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP) from accessing a one mile section of border wall near the Santa Teresa port of entry, claiming that the section was erected on a state land trust without permission.
Commissioner Aubrey Dunn, a registered Libertarian, began an investigation last month into whether or not the federal government had acquired the necessary right of way, KVIA reported.
In general, the federal government is reserved a 60-foot-wide strip of land along the border, in accord with a proclamation issued by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. The intent of that proclamation was to allow for enforcement against the illegal smuggling of goods into the United States, but its reservation has also been used to allow the construction of border security fencing or walls.
But, according to KVIA, the section of land on which this section of wall is constructed was reserved to New Mexico in 1898, under the Ferguson Act. That act stipulated that land reserved in the public trust was to be used exclusively for public schools. Because the reservation of the land predates the Roosevelt proclamation, Dunn claims, CBP needs to pay to access its wall. – READ MORE
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