Border wall construction cuts through Big Bend
By: Trevor Hughes
USA Today
..... Contractors building President Donald Trump;s southwest border wall are bulldozing portions of Big Bend National Park in Texas, sparking fresh outrage from longtime area residents and environmental groups.
.....
"It is horrifying. an invasion. Occupation," said Rio Grande river guide Mike Davision, who has lived in the area for nearly 50 years.
..... Trump campaigned on tough immigration enforcement and border controls, and he has made expansion of the border wall a key campaign promise.
..... In the sumer of 2025, Congress supercharged Trump's effort with $46.5 billion in funding, and federal officials in June [2026] waived dozens of environmental regulations to speed up wall construction in or near the national park.
..... Construction is expected to include blasting new roads through the area so Border Patrol personnel can better reach remote areas of the park, which is about 330 miles southeast of El Paso. Protesters have argued that there's little illegal immigration because the area is so rugged.
..... The National Parks Conservation Association, which has repeatedly sued the Trump administration over environmental issues, condemned the construction.
..... "Bulldozing Big Bend National Park is an unconscionable attack on one of America's greatest treasures," said Tiernan Sittenfeld, the association's president and CEO.
..... Big Bend National Park was formally cerated in 1944 and spans about 801,000 screes of desert and mountains, in part along the Rio Grande corridor. The park's southern boundary from about 188 miles of the U.S.-Mecxico border. Protesters against the border wall over the past several years have included some Trump voters, many local elected officials, environmental activists and migrant rights organizations.
..... The exact path of the broader wall thorough Big Bend remains uncertain. Earlier in the year, [2026] the Trump administration indicated that it would skip building a physical barrier along about 372 miles of the border because of "unfavorable terrain or remoteness of location." Other location's will receive vehicle bollards that let wildlife pass unimpeded, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
.....
DHS officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Area residents say they're dissatisfied with assurances from the DHS that not all of the park is getting a wall, and argue that the road constructions is an environmental catastrophe.
..... Environmental groups, including the National Parks Conservation Association and the Center for Biological Diversity, have sued to stop wall construction. Those lawsuits are ongoing, but Davidson, the Rio Grande river guide, said he thinks here will be "no recourse" from the courts. He added he believes the White House is rushing to finish as much construction as possible before the midterm elections and the possibility that Democrats could retake Congress and halt progress.
..... Some Big bend-area residents have argued that more cameras and better remote surveillance technology would be both less destructive and more effective at securing a border area that rarely sees significant illegal migration from Mexico. Tourism is a major industry in the area, with about 568,000 people visiting the national park in 2025, according to the National Park Service.