On July 20, the staff of the National Butterfly Center in south Texas found workers with chainsaws on their land, clearing out a section of the privately owned reserve.
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The needed space turned out to be part of early Administration efforts to begin border wall construction.
Despite the publicized infamy of President Trump’s high-profile, campaign-promised border wall, no one notified the founder of the center of the construction plans – not in writing or any other way.
According to reports, legally, the Department of Justice is required to submit something in writing before beginning any type of work.
Instead, the only notice Jeffrey Glassberg received was when he saw people tearing up a specially planted habitat on his land:
“There’s a procedure the government could follow with due process,” Glassberg said in an interview, “But they’ve decided — like with so much else — to just ignore the law, trampling on private property rights. The complete disrespect for the legalities of this country is something that ought to concern every American regardless of how they feel about a border wall.”
The Trump administration is also planning to build the wall through the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, close to the National Butterfly Center.
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According to Director Marianna Treviño-Wright, the area of land she found being destroyed was growing for nearly 15 years, carefully cultivated to accommodate the many species of butterfly living there.