Texas Landowners Sue to Block Big Bend Wall
Texas Landowners Sue to Block Big Bend Wall
The News
Landowners, ranchers and business owners in Texas' remote Big Bend region sued the Trump administration Monday to stop it from building a border wall and related infrastructure through the area.
The suit was brought by the "Conserve Big Bend" coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the region's landscape and heritage, along with six landowners and dozens of supporters.
Their argument is that federal law lets the Homeland Security secretary waive regulations to build barriers in areas of "high illegal entry" — and Big Bend, where about 1% of arrests along the U.S.-Mexico border occur, does not qualify.
The Numbers
The administration's nationwide border infrastructure budget is $46 billion. Roughly 500 miles of border run through the Big Bend region — about a quarter of the entire U.S.-Mexico boundary. Plans call for 30-foot steel bollard walls, vehicle barriers and detection technology.
Timeline
Bulldozers are spotted inside Big Bend National Park. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott pauses construction activity in the park.
Conserve Big Bend, six landowners and dozens of supporters ask a court to block the administration's wall plans for the region.
Reactions
The Conserve Big Bend coalition says the administration is using its waiver power to build in some of the most remote and ecologically significant land on the border — territory with very few crossings.
Landowners along the Rio Grande say a wall could cut them off from the river access they need to water crops and feed livestock.
Native American groups say construction would damage religious sites and block access to sacred practices.
The Trump administration has said the remote West Texas region needs measures to stop illegal immigration. A bipartisan group of elected officials is pushing to halt the plan, especially inside the national park.
What's Next
The government has told courts that no final construction plans exist yet for Big Bend National Park, and construction activity there remains paused.
The case turns on whether a court will treat the "high illegal entry" designation as something judges can review, or defer to the Homeland Security secretary's discretion.
More
Big Bend is one of the least-trafficked stretches of the southern border. Plaintiffs are leaning on Customs and Border Protection's own historical arrest data — roughly 1% of U.S.-Mexico border arrests — to argue the legal trigger for the waiver simply is not there.
Poll
Should the government build a border wall through the Big Bend region?
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