Construction of President Donald Trump’s southern border wall has had to be revised in West Texas after a coalition of local residents pushed back against it, insisting it was not necessary and will blight the landscape.
A major feature of Trump’s first term, the U.S.-Mexico wall was intended to keep out illegal immigrants arriving from Central America and seeking asylum, but only a fraction of it was completed before the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden and left office.
While work on shoring up the border has continued in the interim, people living near the Big Bend sector, which includes 517 miles of border along the Rio Grande, have banded together to oppose the erection of a physical steel wall, although they say they still support the idea of border security in principle.
Barrier construction had been due to commence in February, Axios reports, but has now been cut down to just 175 miles, an almost 400-mile scale-back.
That came after pressure from the No Big Bend Wall group, which has argued that illegal crossings are not a problem in their area due to the difficult terrain encompassed by the Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park.
There have been 34,480 encounters at the southern border, official statistics state, but Big Bend accounted for just 892.
“I wish the president would be more informed as to what’s going on,” said Presidio County Sheriff Danny Dominguez about the work. “It’s a place where, if you cross the border, you got to at least walk three or four days... you don’t just walk across the river and expect to get picked up.”
David Keller, an archaeologist from nearby Redford, said of the forced rethink: “They’re responding to friction.”
“Regionally, we’re a united voice,” he added. “Republican, Democrat, Libertarian: doesn’t matter. We all don’t want it.”
The coalition has cited a number of potential environmental setbacks among its objections, listing degradation to vulnerable watersheds and archeological sites, disruption of animal migration routes and to the region’s celebrated black night skies, as well as hits to property values.
They also feel that promises have been broken, given that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was reportedly assured by Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks that there would be no physical barrier erected in Big Bend National Park or the State Park.
In addition to the Big Bend opposition group, five border county sheriffs have written an open letter to federal officials asking them for a greater degree of local consultation and urging them to change course and adopt “technology-driven, and terrain-informed” solutions to the problem of illegal crossings.
Hilton Beckham, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, said: “CBP continues to coordinate with the National Park Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and other federal and state agencies, throughout the planning of border barrier and technology deployments, in order to achieve Border Patrol’s operational priorities.”
“Areas adjacent to the Big Bend National Park and State Park are still in the planning stages, while CBP focuses on other higher priority locations,” he added.
Deirdre Hisler, a Presidio County commissioner, said that a recent meeting with a local sector chief had been cordial and that the official she met with had been receptive to their objections and ended by saying that a further 5.6 miles of physical barrier would be scrapped.
But while the community may have won some battles, local land owners are continuing to receive letters from the Army Corps of Engineers about leasing agreements and Kristi Noem, prior to her removal as Homeland Security secretary last month, signed a number of waivers for environmental studies that would typically be carried out before such a project’s commencement.
"Best case scenario is they just go away and they never come back,” said local river tour guide Charlie Angell, stressing his concern about future segments of the wall impacting riverfront property and animal habitats.
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