Border Politics: New Math? Texas Buys 1,400 Acres to Build 1.5 Miles of Border Wall
(At $25 million dollars per mile. - This is also a tale about possibly mythic "rape trees").
The Texas-taxpayer expansion of the "Border Wall" along the Rio Grande has always been an expensive proposition at $25 million dollars per mile - but the math behind its latest expansion may have some scratching their heads.
Texas General Land Commissioner Dr. Dawn Buckingham recently announced her office has purchased 1,400 acres of land in Starr County, Texas - to allow Texas to construct another 1.5 miles of Border Wall.
According to myrgv.com - a website shared by three Rio Grande Valley Newspapers - the General Land Office has not said: "where, precisely, (the property) is located, who owned it previously, or how much the state of Texas paid for it."
However, the myrgv.com newspapers report at least one real estate agent says "such a substantially large piece of land ... would be worth millions."
In addition to questions about the math involved in a transaction potentially involving large amounts of Texas tax funds to finance the construction of a small section of the "Border Wall" - Texas Land Commissioner Dr. Dawn Buckingham says the property she recently purchased also contains several "rape trees" from which women's underwear are hung indicating where migrant women have been sexually assaulted by cartel smugglers.
These "rape trees" are a source of controversy - many law-enforcement authorities question whether they are border legend or if they actually exist. For her part, Dr. Buckingham is doubling down with promises to tear the "rape trees" down:
"(These Rape Trees) symbolize the grotesque treatment of these immigrants. The perpetrators even hang trophies of their exploits on the branches proving that attempts to find freedom comes with a heavy price. The act of tearing down the tree is a statement, these atrocities will not be permitted in Texas." -Texas Land Commissioner Dr. Dawn Buckingham (October 29, 2024)
Do you support Texas buying 1,400+ acres of land to build 1.5 miles of "Border Wall"?
Share your opinion in the comments on this article!
The irony of the "rape trees" is that they've kind of become a political football. The earliest references to them I've been able to find are actually in left wing sources like the Texas Observer, which took them seriously at the time. Sometime after that, when their existence appeared on the radar of the right wing, and they became fodder for stricter border control, it became vogue for some to doubt their existence. Weird. What is true, is that many pharmacies in Mexican border towns stock large amounts of birth control that is purchased and used by migrant women coming North.