South Texas landowner sues CBP after agency twice tries to take land for border wall

McALLEN, Texas ( Border Report ) — A landowner in rural Starr County, Texas, is suing the federal government, which is trying for the second time to take his property for new border wall construction after he says they returned it once.

Florentino Luera on Friday filed a federal lawsuit in McAllen the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas against U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to documents obtained by Border Report.

Luera alleges that during the Trump administration, in 2020, a portion of his land was condemned by the federal government in order to build new border barrier in Starr County. But in 2021, Luera got a court order by a federal judge to have the action reversed, and his property was revested back to him, according to court documents.

But in October 2023, the federal government sent Luera a letter seeking permission to survey his property for potential border security infrastructure.

And on July 1, Luera says he received another letter from the federal government informing him they had filed a second condemnation action on a 4-acre tract of his borderland near Chapeño, Texas, across from Mier, Mexico. The letter also revealed that “Defendants now claim, despite the prior revestment, that they own a portion of Mr. Luera’s property in Chapeño,” according to the suit.

Luera is suing for:

• Enforcement of the previous contract revesting the property.
• For adjudication to state that he is the property title holder.
• For “just compensation through inverse condemnation for the taking of his property,” the lawsuit says.

“We seek to resolve the ongoing property dispute and ensure Mr. Luera receives the compensation he is entitled to. We believe the Court has already determined Mr. Luera’s sole ownership during the prior condemnation litigation and hope to solve both cases expeditiously,” his lawyer, Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid Staff Attorney Peter McGraw, said in a statement to Border Report on Monday.

Border Report has reached out to CBP and the Army Corps of Engineers for information on why the federal government would once again go after this tract of land, which had already been returned to the landowner previously, according to court documents.

This story will be updated if information is received.

His lawsuit also alleges that officials with the government have improperly entered his property since November 2023.

The land in question is located at the far western tip of Starr County, near the border with Zapata County, and near Falcon Dam.

According to a title and deed submitted in the case, Luera bought 34 acres in 1998 and added 3 more acres in 2004. He uses it to raise cattle, goats and chicken and visits the land often, and enjoys the riverfront land overlooking the Rio Grande and Mexico for family outings, according to court documents.

In January 2019, Luera signed a right-of-entry document allowing CBP and USACE to survey his property “giving the United States, CBP, USACE, and their agents permission to enter his property in Chapeño for purpose assessing and surveying the property in connection with
border security infrastructure projects,” according to court documents.

In December 2020, the federal government filed a lawsuit to condemn 4.58 acres of his land, along with other land. But in September 2021 a federal judge in McAllen ordered the land reverted to Luera, which was completed the following month, according to court documents.

When President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he ordered new border wall construction halted.

However, in October 2023, Biden announced a 20-mile stretch of border wall would be built in Starr County because Congress had previously appropriated the funds in the Fiscal Year 2019 budget and they must be used for this purpose. Only Congress can rescind appropriated funds.

In doing so, the administration waived 26 environmental laws in order to expedite construction of border barrier in Starr County.

The 2-mile barrier that is to be built in the vicinity of Luera’s tract of land in Chapeño would begin in the western edge of the county 1 mile south of Falcon Lake.

Exempted from border wall construction, federal officials have said, is the Salineño Wildlife Preserve world-renowned migratory bird sanctuary, located just south of Chapeño and about 9 miles outside of Roma, Texas.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.

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