Tens of thousands of acres would effectively be lost to Mexico. Anything south of the wall would be of no use to anyone north of the wall. It would become, at best, a no-man’s land, and by default, ceded to Mexico - along with access to the river itself.
Although the land and riverbank would technically still belong to the United States, it would be walled off fromTexas, and access to the Rio Grande River would be lost from the Texas side.
It is difficult to build anything in a riparian flood way or in a flood plain as unpredictable as the Rio Grande’s, so, as a practical matter, the proposed wall, like the fencing that is on the border now, would have to be built at a considerable distance north of the river bank, as shown below.
Since the wall would require a maintenance road on both sides - even when out of the flood plain - you are looking at anywhere from 100′ setback to several hundred feet of setback from the centerline of the river. Say that setback averages out to only 300 feet, which is the length of a football field, which happens to be about an acre. At 160 feet wide per football field, that’s the equivalent of 33 acres per mile - on just the Mexican side of the wall.
33 acres of private property per mile walled off into Mexico - for the entire length of the Rio Grande River in Texas - that’s 1,240 miles of river - the distance from New York to New Orleans - or 40,920 acres of private land lost to Mexico in Texas alone. Plus the river itself.
Trump’s Folly would be almost 2,000 miles long, that’s 66,000 acres of land tacitly ceded to Mexico. Over 100 square miles carved out of the US, plus land federalized on the US side of the wall for access and maintenance for another 100 square miles or about ten times the size of Manhattan.
Since most of the new wall would be be in Texas on private property, that’s 64 square miles of private Texas land that would, for all intents and purposes, would become part of four Mexican states - Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas. Including the entire river and riverbank, its habitat, grazing land, arable land, privately owned land. Walled off from its Texas owners, who would no longer have access to their land, to the riverbank, or free use of the river.
The Mexicans will not pay for the wall, but they will get our land for free after it is has been confiscated by the feds. With a 30 foot tall continuous wall to keep the previous owners out.
Trump would be making a 100+ square mile land grant to Mexico, with a river thrown in. The Mexicans call the river the Rio Bravo. Once the wall goes up, they can re-name it Rio Nuestro - “Our River.” Trump’s Thousand Mile Gift to Mexico. Gracias Cheato !
Texas won its independence from Mexico with that river as its boundary. The US fought a war with Mexico over that boundary (the Mexicans claimed the Nueces River, the US claimed the Rio Grande). My great grandfather was in the US Army stationed near the river outside of Laredo.
Trump’s Imaginary Wall was pure campaign BS and Trump told the President of Mexico as much.
In Texas, it’s dead on arrival. Because it’s our land and our river they’re playing political games with. Don’t Confiscate Texas !
Chip,
I could not agree with you more! I have been saying these same things for years, and especially since Orange Judas decided that he was going to build the wall and have Mexico pay for it. I spend a LOT of time canoeing the RIo Grande (38 trips between Presidio and Langtry, so far) and that land is NOT conducive to building ANY wall. The river through the Upper and Lower Canyons of the Rio Grande has mountains that tower 1,000 - 2,000 feet above the river, often on both sides, and it is physically impossible to fence it off without, as you correctly stated, confiscating private property to do it. I have a feeling that would be a very good way to start another revolution. Those ranchers down in Big Bend are very conservative, but they will NOT tolerate “the government” taking their land, denying them access to the river for watering their livestock or building ANY federal structure on their private land.
Further, trump’s proposal is a direct violation of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which declares that the river and the banks on both sides are open for recreation and commercial use by citizens of both countries, and that free navigation is a matter of international treaty.
Our president is a moron who neither knows or cares about law and treaties. His supporters are even dumber than him because they are so dumb that they are duped by him.