A steel border wall appears to be off the table for beloved West Texas natural areas Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park, newspaper the Big Bend Sentinel reports.
Instead, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol records now show the Trump administration’s plans have been scaled back to a “surveillance only” barrier of cameras in portions of the parks that run along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Big Bend Sentinel’s report stems from a closed-door meeting U.S. Border Patrol Big Bend Sector Patrol Chief Agent Lloyd Easterling held last Friday with Presidio County Commissioner Deirdre Hisler and other local officials.
“While the Chief and many members of our local CBP partners are sympathetic to the potential construction of a wall, Easterling made it very clear that they have a job to do and that they do believe that a wall is an essential tool for their operations but that a physical wall is not necessarily appropriate for all areas of the border,” Hisler wrote in notes she took at the Friday meeting, according to the Sentinel.
A Substack from independent environmental publication Our Public Lands & Waters surfaced March 5 showing that the government’s plans for a barrier in Big Bend National Park no longer appeared to be physical.
A so-called “smart map” of planned wall construction on CBP’s website had changed without fanfare to show that a steel barrier once planned for the national park had been replaced by a “detection only” surveillance zone, comprised of cameras and censors only.
‘Detection technology’
However, not all activists in the No Big Bend Wall movement trusted that initial report.
Indeed, as of press time, the CBP map still shows a physical wall cutting through Big Bend Ranch State Park, which sits adjacent the national parkland.
However, at Friday’s meeting, Easterling told Hisler the state park also would be updated to “detection technology” only, rather than a physical wall, according to the Big Bend Sentinel.
The CBP website clarifies that “approximately 535 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border without barrier will be covered by detection technology due to unfavorable terrain or remoteness of location.”
Big Bend Ranch State Park’s Hoodoo Trail and the Santa Elena Canyon are considered some of the region’s most scenic natural features, causing concern that a physical barrier would mar the landscape. Locals also questioned the need for a 30-foot steel wall against the sharp relief of a cliffside that’s already inhospitable to traverse.
“It kind of already is walled off by a lot of natural features. People here call it God’s Wall,” NBC News’ Ryan Chandler reported from the park in an Instagram video last week.
However, the No Big Bend Wall movement, which has harnessed the creativity of the Marfa and Terlingua communities, shows no sign of slowing down — just in case CBP’s recent claims of scaled-back barrier are a fake out.
As of press time, a petition opposing the creation of a physical barrier at Big Bend — considered by many lovers of the outdoors to be the crown jewel of Texas — has surpassed 100,000 signatures.
Losing a way of life
Construction of a physical barrier is still planned for land to the east and west of the parks along the Rio Grande, something that continues to raise alarms for the region’s landowners.
“Now I may lose my business, my home and my way of life,” expedition-company owner Charlie Angell told the Washington Post in a piece published over the weekend.
Angell’s tour group passes through the porous border between Presidio, Texas, and its sister border town of Ojinaga in Chihuahua, Mexico. Angell’s business is one of several in the region that include visits to the Mexican village as a highlight of their tours.
Environmental activists have also raised the alarm that a physical border wall will disrupt animals’ migratory patterns and put endangered species at risk. Those considered at risk from wall development include ocelots, jaguars, jaguarundis, bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelopes and Mexican gray wolves, according to a study by Rice University.
“What is clear is this: construction at that magnitude would fundamentally alter one of the most intact desert river systems in North America — fragmenting habitat, restricting river access, affecting working ranchlands and reshaping landscapes that have remained largely uninterrupted for generations,” Grahame Jones, executive director of the Texas Conservation Alliance told the National Wildlife Federation.
“This is not a partisan position. It is a conservation position grounded in stewardship of public lands and respect for private property rights. TCA urges policymakers to pursue border security solutions in the Trans-Pecos that safeguard both the safety of Texans and the integrity of one of our state’s most extraordinary landscapes.”
Sign Up for SA Current newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
