BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK, Texas — Construction activity tied to a U.S. border security project has begun inside Big Bend National Park, with heavy equipment clearing vegetation near Santa Elena Canyon as the Trump administration moves ahead with roads, surveillance technology and low-profile vehicle barriers along the Rio Grande.
Federal contractors began clearing brush near the canyon this week to prepare a patrol road, according to reports from the site. The work is part of a $1.7 billion Customs and Border Protection (CBP) contract covering roads, vehicle barriers and other security infrastructure in the park.
CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said Thursday that the agency was conducting survey and design work while building one new access road, improving existing roads, installing detection technology and placing vehicle barriers in limited strategic locations. Scott said the government was not building a 30-foot wall or stadium lighting in Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park or the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area.
The administration initially considered a 30-foot steel wall through the region but shifted away from that approach in the national park after opposition from residents and Texas officials. CBP has said the park project will instead rely on cameras and sensors, patrol roads and limited, low-profile barriers intended to prevent vehicles from reaching the Rio Grande while allowing wildlife and people on foot to pass.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said about two miles of vehicle barriers are planned within the more than 1,200-square-mile park, while the patrol-road network will extend considerably farther. The contract is part of at least $7.5 billion in federal awards for border security work across the wider Big Bend Sector, which stretches more than 500 miles.
The start of work has prompted criticism from some local officials and conservation advocates concerned about impacts on wildlife, scenery and culturally significant sites. Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn of Texas urged Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin this week to meet with local stakeholders before additional physical barriers are built, citing concerns about roads, lighting, wildlife migration and access to the Rio Grande.
CBP previously said construction had not officially started and that crews were regrading storm-damaged roads needed for surveys. Activists subsequently documented vegetation clearing near Santa Elena Canyon, where the National Park Service says limestone walls rise as high as 1,500 feet above the Rio Grande.
The federal government’s current plan remains focused on roads, detection technology and limited vehicle barriers rather than a 30-foot wall inside the national park. A Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission public hearing on border infrastructure is scheduled for Aug. 19 in Austin.
