I followed Miller\u2019s van to his property in Redford, where a banner hanging on the gate read \u201cGovernor Abbott: PLEASE STOP THE BORDER WALL!! Thank you for your attention to this matter!\u201d Miller lives in Terlingua and uses the Redford land as a place to camp, and as a put-in for river trips. He and his wife had been planning to build a cabin and retire on the property.<\/p>\n
Like other landowners I spoke with, Miller said his understanding of where the wall would go largely came from a map on the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s website. A dark green line marked where the government planned to build a \u201cprimary border wall system,\u201d while an orange line indicated \u201cdetection technology\u201d but no physical barrier. Earlier this year, the line was mostly green, meaning that a steel wall would traverse much of Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park. After sustained public outcry\u2014\u201cstop the steel\u201d was one slogan\u2014the colors on the map changed: the line crossing the national park and part of the state park was colored orange. Miller\u2019s land, which abuts the state park, was still in the green zone. But there was pervasive uncertainty about whose land would be affected, and how. \u201cThe only way to get this information is by refreshing the website and seeing what color it is,\u201d a frustrated landowner told me. The map has changed multiple times over the past month, and at one point was removed from the website entirely. In mid-May, the\u00a0head of\u00a0C.B.P.\u00a0said that the administration no longer planned to build a wall within the national park. The current map indicates\u00a0“technology & patrol roads” and \u201cvehicle barrier systems\u201d within the park\u2019s boundaries, and a\u00a0steel wall\u00a0elsewhere in the region, including parts of the state park.<\/p>\n
Miller drove past a thicket of mesquite and parked on a bluff with patchy, sun-bleached grass. The Rio Grande was twenty feet away, shining between stalks of river cane. Though many people come to far West Texas for its isolation\u2014the Unabomber\u2019s slightly less reclusive brother did a stint here in the eighties, living at first in a crude underground shelter\u2014Miller said that immigration-enforcement agents have been an intrusive presence for many years. \u201cIn the Obama days, they deported a lot of our friends out here\u2014people who were raised in Terlingua,\u201d he said. During the second Trump Administration, the federal government sent the military to the area; for a little while, there was a Stryker tank parked across from his property. On multiple occasions, he said, he\u2019d found game cameras that border patrol had hidden in trees, to keep an eye out for illegal activity. (A spokesperson for C.B.P. noted that the agency was entitled to patrol on private lands within twenty-five miles of the border, and said that \u201cwhen installing technology such as cameras on private property, the Border Patrol coordinates directly with the landowner. That was done in this case.\u201d Miller said the agents had not co\u00f6rdinated with him.)<\/p>\n
As Miller relayed this story, the sound of a vehicle coming down the dirt road interrupted him. \u201cHere we go,\u201d he said, rolling his eyes. A green-striped Border Patrol vehicle pulled up, and two agents got out, both wearing sunglasses and black tactical vests. \u201cJust seeing if you guys are O.K.,\u201d one said. (The agents declined to give their names.)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just talking about how they\u2019re trying to build the border wall\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. and it\u2019s supposed to basically steal all our property,\u201d Miller said brightly, a glimmer of anger in his voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, unfortunately, it\u2019s gonna happen\u2014\u201d the agent started to say.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to happen,\u201d Miller said. \u201cNot if we can do anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Building the wall in the area was \u201cunfortunate,\u201d the agent conceded, but it would help stop child sex trafficking. \u201cNobody wants that, right?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it worth billions of dollars to stop a handful of people?\u201d Miller asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it stops one child from getting sex trafficked, yeah, for me, it is,\u201d the agent said stiffly. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to make a difference,\u201d Miller said bitterly. \u201cLike, the most horrible difference you can imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the agents drove off, Miller walked down to the riverbank and stood looking out at the Rio Grande. It was a muddy green and moving quickly after some recent rain. Miller\u2019s dog, Koozie, waded in the water up to her belly. Lately, the wall had been appearing in his dreams, Miller said. Sometimes he was on the river and the wall blocked him from reaching the shore, and sometimes he was on land and couldn\u2019t find his way to the water. I asked him what he thought was going to happen. \u201cI think they\u2019re going to build the wall,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I followed Miller\u2019s van to his property in Redford, where a banner hanging on the gate read \u201cGovernor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61695,28738,5862,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-292678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-border-wall","tag-eminent-domain","tag-rio-grande","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292678","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=292678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}