and found legal battles that dragged on for years. homeowners who described heartache. drew griffin tonight reports. reporter: their lives were cut in half the last time the u.s. government decided it wanted to build a wall. ray and deanne couldn t believe it. they had been farming the south texas land for nearly 100 years until the notice came the government was taking it. i was very angry. i just kept saying, how can they do that? how is that possible in the united states that they can do this? put up a fence in front of our land and then keep us in here. lock us in. i didn t understand. i was very i was floored and flabbergasted. reporter: that was almost ten years ago. they thought they could fight. they lost. the government paid them a settlement and took the land it needed to build this fence. cutting their farm in two. it left us no property on the
land and then keep us in here. lock us in. i didn t understand. i was very i was floored and flabbergasted. reporter: that was almost ten years ago. they thought they could fight. they lost. the government paid them a settlement and took the land it needed to build this fence. cutting their farm in two. it left us no property on the u.s. side of the border wall. including my house. everything was behind on the mexican side of the u.s. border fence. reporter: these american citizens were locked out of their own country. their farm ended up on the south side of the border fence, still on u.s. soil. but wedged between the fence and the border with mexico. their only access to the rest of the u.s., a locked gate. there s not really words to describe it. we have learned to live with it.
city. jonathan is right. make it all private. that s the best thing to do. and that will stop this. when things are owned by the public. they are owned by no one and that s why all of the utilities and services are literally going to hell. have a private developer put up condos and residential and take responsibility. and make it a no property and no income tax zone, people can do in assessment as they do in the villams, you could so it tloif. a lot of cities in texas no income tax and doing well. i meant to say 130 square miles. a very large city. orth threat sounding. obama care and are your medical records about to get hacked? . allstate accident forgiveness. it starts the day you sign up. [ female announcer ] with accident forgiveness from allstate,