(NewsNation Now) — While former President Donald Trump’s plan to build a physical wall along the U.S./Mexico border may be scrapped, one of his chief acolytes continues to try to seal the Texas/Mexico border against incursion.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is asking ranchers and landowners along the border to allow the installation of chain-link fencing topped with barbed wire along the border where it passes through their properties. Land owners have been pleading for federal or state assistance in controlling the flow of illegal migrants because of damage they say they’ve suffered because of the traffic.
The fencing used would be recycled from other border projects and installed as time and manpower permits. The plan right now covers 5 acres in rural Starr County, along the southern stretch of the border.
Environmentalists claim that the fence would hurt wildlife and water flow, and plan studies to prove their stance.
The area planned for coverage is a very small percentage of Texas’ border with Mexico. Coyotes, people who take money to smuggle migrants across the border, frequently make use of rural areas like the one planned because of the ability to cross the border out of sight of authorities.