WRITING ON THE WALL: Riverfront landowner receives Declaration of Taking, Condemnation from federal government; may be Webb’s first recorded notice of taking

Laredoan Tony Medina — who owns property in northwestern Webb County where Santa Isabel Creek meets the Río Grande — has been advised by letter by U.S. Customs and Border Protection that the government will file a Declaration of Taking and Complaint in Condemnation in U.S. District Court.

Medina has enjoyed ownership of his three-acre property in Ranchitos IV Los Minerales subdivision as a recreational venue shared with his father, brother, wife, two daughters, and now his two grandchildren for the last four decades. “We have camped, fished, and celebrated family events here. It has been an important part of our lives,” he said.

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On Santa Isabela Creek heading toward its mouth at the Rio Grande

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The Rio Grande as it opens up after Santa Isabela Creek

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On the river, looking backward upstream in front of Tony Medina's property.

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Anglers from West Texas visit this stretch of the river and Santa Isabel Creek annually for some of the best cat fishing in the state.

The December 4 letter cites the government’s “immediate need” to enter Medina’s property “for the purpose of conducting environmental assessments, property surveys, appraisals, and any other such work which may be necessary and incidental to the Government’s assessment of the property for possible acquisition in support on (sic) U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) construction of border infrastructure authorized by Congress in the Fiscal Year 2019 appropriation and other funded tactical infrastructure projects.”

The letter, which was issued by Loren Flossman, acquisition manager for the Wall Program Management Office, justifies “border security infrastructure, such as border walls, lighting, and roads” as “critical elements to gain effective control of our Nation’s borders.”

Medina said, “There is no national emergency on the Mexican border.”

A civil engineer by profession, Medina said he met the week of Oct. 21, 2019 with two representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a Border Patrol agent in “a cordial visit” at his home in north Laredo.

“I was advised to send the Right of Entry for Survey and Site Assessment forms they left me within the following 10 days, but I never intended to send them. I have no intention to comply,” he said.

“My property is on the edge of a barranco. I’ve already lost 38 feet on a bend in the river from when the river rises and moves quickly. I didn’t actually lose the land, but due to the fact that its river silt, it has dropped approximately 20 feet in elevation. The wall, if it is built, will be an environmental disaster. How will they build a wall across the many creeks that feed into the river in a heavy rainfall?” he asked.

Of those who have not or will not acquiesce to Right of Entry, Medina said, “I think there will be an aggregate of Webb County residents in this same position.”

He called the proposed wall’s mastermind, President Donald Trump, “an idiot, a moron and a racist.” He said the “wall has become a polarizing issue that has ended old friendships. “How is it possible that even in our own culture there are those who do not see the hatred and racism in the wall?”