THE BORDER REPORT

These eminent domain lawsuits are growing ridiculous and while I'm sure the Justice Department is taking them seriously, it appears the Department of Homeland Security hasn't been completely ... shall we say, forthcoming ... with its information.

Somewhere in some dank former INS building lies a letter, now dusty with two years of age. And I'm willing to bet that it and about 90 others like it could have saved a lot of work for the U.S. Attorney's Office this week.

You've seen the stories, I'm sure. They've broken out all over the U.S. border this week. The Justice Department is filing 101 lawsuits across Texas, Arizona, and California on behalf of the Homeland Security department. Homeland wants border landowners to give them access to their property so engineers can survey the border and determine what kind of fence to put up.

There's been a lot of tough talk by the Homeland Security officials, threatening the landowners with eminent domain lawsuits if they don't comply.

Here's Sec. Michael Chertoff speaking at a hearing last month before threatening legal action against the non-compliant:

"The door is still open to talk if people want to engage with us ... but it's not open for endless talk. We do need to get moving on this proposition.”

Tough talk from the premier law enforcement official.

And the media's gone along with it. Who wouldn't? It's a sexy story no matter where you stand on immigration issues.

It's the beauty of libertarianism; the liberal press corps can focus on old-timers led to believe they're being chased off their land. The straight players can focus on Eagle Pass, Texas, which was ordered within hours of the suits' filings last Monday to surrender access of its 233 acres on the border. The conservative press can focus on A) property rights, or B) those standing in the way of border security.

Tight little story about those affected by the news either way you look at it.

And then there's the stories like this guy's, Scottsdale resident Adley Croaff.

I called Croaff Wednesday when I found he was one of the Arizona property owners being sued. Croaff says he didn't even he know was being sued until a reporter contacted him. He’s being sued over a two-acre parcel in Santa Cruz County that he inherited from his grandmother.

“In 2006, I got a letter from the federal government asking me for permission to enter the land. I signed it and sent it back. Then in 2007, they sent it again. I didn’t sign that one. I already signed it once, why should I sign it twice?” he said.

“It’s an empty piece of land. They can go onto it all they want,” he said.

Now, judging from the difficulty the press has had in finding more than a handful of the 101 people being sued, I will bet anyone here a twelve-pack of Negra Modelo that Mr. Croaff's situation is the most common reason of why these lawsuits exist in the first place.

The Feds losing track of the forms they have people filling out is, in my experience, a normal problem. In this case, it could have saved a whole lot of resources and spending on an already-overworked federal prosecutor's office.

-- Michel Marizco