Disgusting Asset Forfiture

[Benton]

I'd say this practice is going to get plenty of support at the federal level. Trump and Sessions have both made it clear: if the government wants your stuff, they're getting your stuff.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-sheriff-asset-forfeiture-texas-234740

Quote:President Donald Trump invited the sheriff of a small Texas County to “destroy” the career of a state senator who sought to ban a controversial law enforcement practice by naming the lawmaker during a White House meeting.

From 2015
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/08/19/donald-trumps-abuse-of-eminent-domain/?utm_term=.ed7523887354

Quote:For more than 30 years Vera Coking lived in a three-story house just off the Boardwalk in Atlantic City. Donald Trump built his 22-story Trump Plaza next door. In the mid-1990s Trump wanted to build a limousine parking lot for the hotel, so he bought several nearby properties. But three owners, including the by then elderly and widowed Ms Coking, refused to sell.

As his daughter Ivanka said in introducing him at his campaign announcement, Donald Trump doesn’t take no for an answer.

Trump turned to a government agency – the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) – to take Coking’s property….

Peter Banin and his brother owned another building on the block. A few months after they paid $500,000 to purchase the building for a pawn shop, CRDA offered them $174,000 and told them to leave the property. A Russian immigrant, Banin said: “I knew they could do this in Russia, but not here. I would understand if they needed it for an airport runway, but for a casino?”

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-budget-border-wall-land-acquisition-eminent-domain-2017-3

Quote:On January 12, her daughter, Yvette Salinas, received a legal notice from the Department of Homeland Security with a 21-page "Declaration of Taking," offering Flores $2,900 for 1.2 acres of her property along the river.

"The United States of America is acquiring property along its border with Mexico in order to construct a fence and related improvements designed to secure the border," the letter said. "The purpose of this letter is to confer about the amount of just compensation in this case."

...

And the budget proposal submitted by President Donald Trump on Thursday suggests his administration is gearing up for a fight over properties like the Flores family's.

At least she's getting paid.