WASHINGTON — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, long a warrior for private property rights, said Monday that he nevertheless has no problem with the Trump administration's plans to use eminent domain for a "big, beautiful" border wall.

The Republican acknowledged legitimate concerns from residents along the Texas-Mexico border, adding that "these people need to be paid fairly." But he pointed out that eminent domain is used properly "all the time" in Texas for road construction and other projects.

The key distinction, Paxton said, is that the practice must serve an actual public purpose.

"In my mind, this is a very similar purpose," he said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. "It's a public purpose providing safety to people not only along the border, but to the entire nation."

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the proposed border wall is a "public purpose providing safety to people not only along the border, but to the entire nation." (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

That Paxton is aligning with the federal government on anything is a sure sign of a new era in Washington.

The Texan took pride in suing the feds often under President Barack Obama. And it's true that he's still filed a few suits so far against the Trump administration over lingering issues, including one case about nuclear waste storage that ensnared Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the former governor.

"If he were governor, he would've encouraged it," he said with a laugh.

But with a Republican in the White House, Paxton's task is different.

"We just have a lot more cooperative administration to help try to resolve things in a positive way instead of constantly having to sue the federal government," said Paxton, who on Monday submitted a brief to back up President Donald Trump's revised travel ban.

Still, land disputes are among the thorniest side effects of the border wall that Trump wants built from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

Early wall specifications call for thick barriers that are at are at least 18 feet tall — but ideally, even taller. The walls must prevent tunneling 6 feet deep and must be able to withstand for at least 30 minutes an attack by sledgehammers and other handheld tools.

Those kinds of features require space. And so the White House is asking for funds in its first budget to pay for 20 Justice Department attorneys dedicated to gobbling up border parcels.

"This is the government doing what it has to do to protect its borders," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said last week. "There's nobody in America, and I daresay the world, that didn't believe that the president was committed to building a wall."

White House press secretary Sean Spicer has defended plans to use eminent domain for the border wall (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Texas, however, presents a special challenge.

Massive swaths of the border are privately owned, a fact that gummed up efforts under President George W. Bush to build some barriers. The winding Rio Grande and the rugged West Texas landscape also makes getting the necessary land no simple task.

And Texans have a deep affinity for protecting their property rights.

Paxton has often been at the forefront of that defense. As attorney general, he's made private property rights a central element to one lawsuit against the federal government over contested land along the Red River and another over a contentious water rights rule.

"Washington, D.C., needs to hear loud and clear that Texas will not stand for the federal government's infringement upon Texas land and the property rights of the people who live here," Paxton said last year, announcing his office's involvement in the Red River case.

A border wall was one of President Donald Trump's signature campaign promises. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Asked Monday about those past stands, he nodded: "I know where you're going."

Like many Texas Republicans, Paxton takes a more measured view than Trump on the border wall. He said he supports a wall in "places that make sense," citing El Paso as an example of where border barriers have been effective.

"Then let technology and border agents cover the rest," said Paxton, who was visiting Washington to meet with lawmakers.

But he said the other private property rights cases he's tackled in recent years aren't comparable, arguing that the federal government then wasn't pursuing a true public purpose. Still, he said his office would continue to monitor the development of the border wall in Texas.

"I want people to be treated fairly, so they shouldn't just have their land just taken from them," he said. "They need to be compensated fairly."