Historically, the number of people crossing unauthorized into the United States in the Big Bend region is much lower than in more urban, populous areas. But since the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed in July 2025, appropriated $46.5 billion for border wall construction, no region appears to be spared.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While unauthorized border crossings have dropped dramatically in the past two years, the Trump administration is moving forward with the border wall, including in Arizona\u2019s San Rafael Valley and wildlife refuges in South Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the CBP website, construction for the smart wall<\/a> can include a steel bollard wall or waterborne barrier, \u201calong with roads, detection technology, cameras and lighting and in some cases a secondary wall.\u201d<\/p>\n The Big Bend region in southwest Texas may be next. In Presidio County, the Big Bend Sentinel<\/a> reported that landowners have been approached about leasing for barrier construction. Marfa Public Radio<\/a> reported that companies are looking for land for staging areas.<\/p>\n The highest elected official for Brewster County, Judge Greg Henington, spoke against the wall during a public appearance in the county seat of Alpine on Feb. 12. Big Bend National Park is in Brewster County.<\/p>\n \u201cThis county judge sees no reason to go with a border wall in Brewster County,\u201d Henington, a Republican, said. \u201cI get border security, but there are other ways to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n David Keller, a noted archaeologist of the region, characterized the plans for border barriers in the Big Bend as \u201cthe military industrialization of one of the last, great, unspoiled places remaining in the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne of our most beloved national parks and our state\u2019s largest park will be scarred beyond repair,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n CBP has not responded to questions sent by Inside Climate News. U.S. Rep.Tony Gonzales, a Republican who represents Texas\u2019 23rd district, which includes the Big Bend area, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n CBP has offered little public information about border barrier construction in the Big Bend. But word spreads quickly in the region\u2019s closely knit communities. During a conference last week in Alpine focused on water issues, attendees peppered speakers with questions about the wall.<\/p>\n Hudspeth County Judge Joanna MacKenzie, a Republican, said during the event she is opposed to wall construction in her rural county. \u201cIt\u2019s a bandaid to make people feel better who don\u2019t live here and don\u2019t see it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Hudspeth County has roughly 100 miles of border with Mexico along the \u201cForgotten Reach<\/a>\u201d of the Rio Grande. To the southeast is Presidio County, where the only existing border barrier is recently installed<\/a> concertina wire in the city of Presidio at its border crossing with Ojinaga, Mexico. Presidio County Judge Joe Portillo has said that alternatives to a physical wall should be explored.<\/p>\n The Rio Grande and the Rio Conchos, which flows north from Mexico, converge at Presidio. The area, known as La Junta de los Rios, has a rich Indigenous history.<\/p>\n Keller, the archaeologist, said the proposed border wall would destroy thousands of years of Native American history stored in the soils around La Junta de los Rios. Among the laws waived by DHS were the Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.<\/p>\n DHS issued the waivers to expedite construction through Hudspeth and Presidio counties on Feb. 13. The order, signed by Secretary Kristi Noem, called the Big Bend Sector \u201can area of high illegal entry where illegal aliens regularly attempt to enter the United States and smuggle illicit drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n Charlie Angell, a resident of Redford in Presidio County, argues otherwise. He said in more than a decade owning property on the Rio Grande, he has never seen anyone enter illegally. He said he will refuse to sell his property, which includes his residence some 250 feet from the river.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI plan to live here the rest of my life,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to start over.\u201d<\/p>\n Through his company Angell Expeditions, he has taken thousands of people on river trips on the Rio Grande. He said the river attracts wildlife\u2014javelinas, foxes, bobcats\u2014out of the surrounding desert seeking water. The wall could cut them off, too. Angell\u2019s property also includes the El Polvo archaeological site, which would be impacted by any construction.<\/p>\n Just downstream of Angell\u2019s property, Big Bend Ranch State Park offers 300,000 acres of rugged desert expanses for hikers and mountain bikers and Rio Grande access for paddlers. CBP\u2019s map indicates border barrier construction from the western edge of the park to Colorado Canyon, a common starting point for paddling trips. The map shows the barrier picking back up again further southeast in the park and passing through the town of Lajitas.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has not received a request from the federal government for any border-barrier infrastructure within Big Bend Ranch State Park,\u201d said spokesperson Stephanie Garcia.<\/p>\n Big Bend National Park lies southeast of the state park. The world-renowned national park draws visitors to explore the Rio Grande, hike the Chisos Mountains, observe wildlife and experience some of the darkest skies in the continent. Despite its remote location, more than 500,000 people visit the park every year. The National Park Service estimates the park contributed<\/a> $56.8 million to the local economy in 2024.<\/p>\n This story is funded by readers like you.<\/p>\n Our nonprofit newsroom provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. Please donate now to support our work.<\/p>\n Donate Now<\/a> <\/p>\n Over the weekend, CBP updated its online map<\/a> to show plans for smart wall construction within Big Bend National Park. Previously, the map had indicated \u201cdetection technology\u201d would be used within the national park.\u00a0<\/p>\n The area now highlighted for smart wall construction begins at Santa Elena Canyon and continues along the river until Mariscal Canyon. The map then shows the smart wall continuing on the other side of the canyon to the Hot Springs, through the Rio Grande Village campground and Boquillas border crossing, stopping at the entrance to Boquillas Canyon.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have no knowledge of any plans for a border wall,\u201d said Don Corrick, the spokesperson for Big Bend National Park, on Friday. National Park Service headquarters did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n \u201cSo Far From Everything\u201d<\/p>\n Lilia Falcon is a lifelong resident of Boquillas del Carmen, a small town overlooking the Rio Grande within Mexico\u2019s Maderas del Carmen Natural Reserve. The only legal border crossing between the United States and Mexico in Big Bend is at Boquillas.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Feb. 14, dozens of visitors tramped down the dirt road to the river crossing, shelling out $5 each to be guided across. Many of them ended up at Jos\u00e9 Falcon\u2019s Restaurant overlooking the river, eating enchiladas and drinking Mexican beer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lilia Falcon now runs the restaurant founded by her father Jos\u00e9 in 1973. She said that people in Boquillas are opposed to a wall.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have always said we have our own beautiful, natural walls: the canyons,\u201d she said while taking a break from working the restaurant\u2019s cash register.<\/p>\n Sheer rock canyons rise above the Rio Grande both upstream and downstream of Boquillas. The community is three hours by road to the nearest sizable town in Coahuila. Falcon said its remoteness has always deterred people from attempting to cross unauthorized into Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are so far from everything,\u201d she said. \u201cBig Bend has always been very protected.\u201d<\/p>\n On the U.S. side of the border, nearly 100 miles of rugged parkland and a Border Patrol checkpoint separate any potential border crossers from the closest U.S. town to the north. Border Patrol also operates within the park.<\/p>\n Falcon said wildlife would suffer if a border barrier is built. She pointed out that the black bears now living in Big Bend crossed into the park from Mexico. Falcon also worries that flooding could damage or wash away any border infrastructure installed along the river.\u00a0<\/p>\n During the first Trump administration, women in Boquillas embroidered messages against the wall on handicrafts. Tourists could pick up handmade koozies or tortilla warmers with anti-wall slogans. A bumper sticker reading \u201cNo Al Muro\u201d still adorns a minifridge at the restaurant.\u00a0<\/p>\n Falcon said they may start embroidering \u201cNo Al Muro\u201d once again.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tAbout This Story<\/p>\n Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That\u2019s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can\u2019t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We\u2019ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.<\/p>\n Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.<\/p>\n Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don\u2019t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places? <\/p>\n Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.<\/p>\n Thank you,<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tReporter, El Paso, Texas<\/p>\n Martha Pskowski covers climate change and the environment in Texas from her base in El Paso. She was previously an environmental reporter at the El Paso Times. She began her career as a freelance journalist in Mexico, reporting for outlets including The Guardian and Yale E360. Martha has a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Hampshire College and a master\u2019s degree in Journalism and Latin American Studies from New York University. She is a former Fulbright research fellow in Mexico. Martha can be reached on Signal at psskow.33<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"REDFORD, Texas\u2014Plans for a border wall through the Big Bend region of West Texas are raising alarms among…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[68459,61695,4092,8393,2946,1724,1468,5862,27,29,28,1153,6357,10226,375],"class_list":{"0":"post-168938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-big-bend-national-park","9":"tag-border-wall","10":"tag-department-of-homeland-security","11":"tag-environmental-justice","12":"tag-homeland-security","13":"tag-immigration","14":"tag-mexico","15":"tag-rio-grande","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-texas-headlines","18":"tag-texas-news","19":"tag-trump-administration","20":"tag-u-s-customs-and-border-protection","21":"tag-u-s-mexico-border","22":"tag-west-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Big](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_6422.jpg\"\/)
![\"Big](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_6422.jpg\")
Big Bend Ranch State Park is the largest in the Texas state park system. Credit: Martha Pskowski\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/BigBendNatlParkTX.png\"\/)
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/BigBendNatlParkTX.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"River](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_6465-1024x683.jpg\"\/)
![\"River](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_6465-1024x683.jpg\")
River guide Charlie Angell holds a pottery shard from the El Polvo archeological site near his home on Feb. 16. Credit: Martha Pskowski\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n![\"Charlie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_6474.jpg\"\/)
![\"Charlie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_6474.jpg\")
Charlie Angell at his property in Redford, Texas. Credit: Martha Pskowski\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n![\"Lilia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_6336-1024x683.jpg\"\/)
![\"Lilia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_6336-1024x683.jpg\")
Lilia Falcon runs the restaurant her father, Jos\u00e9 Falcon, founded in Boquillas del Carmen, Mexico. Credit: Martha Pskowski\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_6376.jpg\"\/)
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_6376.jpg\")
The Rio Grande is seen in Big Bend National Park. The river separates the park from Mexico. Credit: Martha Pskowski\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n![\"Martha](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/pskowski-02-300x300.png\"\/)
![\"Martha](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/pskowski-02-300x300.png\")
<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMartha Pskowski\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n