Texas Attorney General and Gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott questioned a federal agency’s authority to seize private property in Texas.

On Tuesday, Abbott sent a letter to Bureau of Land Management Director Neil Kornze, questioning the BLM’s authority to seize private property along the Red River in Texas.

The BLM is reportedly forming a Resource Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement to regulate the use of federal lands along a 116-mile stretch of the Red River.

Abbott says that there have been reports from BLM field hearings that the federal government is claiming that 90,000 acres of territory along the Red River now belong to the federal government.

“Private landowners in Texas have owned, maintained, and cultivated this land for generations,” said Abbott. “Despite the long-settled expectations of these hard-working Texans along the Red River, the BLM appears to be threatening their private property rights by claiming ownership over this territory. Yet, the BLM has failed to disclose either its full intentions or the legal justification for its proposed actions.”

Abbott has requested information from the BLM including steps for the RMP/EIS, procedural due process that the organization will afford to Texans whose property may be claimed by the federal government, as well as other information.

We’ll bring you more on this story as it develops.

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