Lauren Villagran

There is a process for that.

And landowners in the region that have land along the border, this is Texas and the land is privately owned, need to give permission to the feds to survey the property and ultimately make an offer.

The federal government is supposed to make a fair market value offer, but eminent domain means the federal government does have the right to take the land.

I know from locals that the Army Corps of Engineer Landmen are supposed to be in the region reviewing the titles to borderland property.

And I also know that a coalition working in the region is trying to organize landowners, many of whom oppose construction of the wall in their backyard.

I was personally touched by the story of Denise Carrera.

She is a woman from Presidio, Texas, at the border, born and raised.

And she left, like many young people do, from this very small town to go to Dallas, where she worked for a decade.

But she told me, Dana, that living in the big city, she struggled to see the moon at night and that she had to use an app to try to find the moon.

She had grown up with the darkest night skies and had learned since she was little about the Milky Way and the galaxies and everything.

Truly, when you're in Presidio or some of these tiny places in this region, you can't find them at night.

There's almost no light.

And she told of coming home to Presidio in part to get back to that rural calm.

She has some remote work now that allowed her to do that.

And she burst into tears thinking about how she might lose the ability to see the stars at night should the border wall and the construction begin there.

Well, Dana, it is fired up is how I would describe it.

I don't think I met a single person in four days in the region who didn't have something to say about President Donald Trump's plans to build a border barrier in that region.

So President Trump, upon taking office in 2025, did send indications that he intended to continue border wall construction.

Then last year, when he signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, that bill gave more than $45 billion for border barrier construction.

Now, the local Big Bend Sentinel, a local newspaper, began a drumbeat of stories on the contracts being issued and the plans being signed.