{"id":394392,"date":"2026-08-01T04:59:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T04:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/394392\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T04:59:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T04:59:32","slug":"texas-commissioner-orders-feds-to-stop-clearing-border-tract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/394392\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas commissioner orders feds to stop clearing border tract"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham sent a cease and desist letter<\/a> on Friday to Customs and Border Protection and federal contractor Barnard Construction, accusing the company of illegally clearing state land in Presidio County, on the U.S-Mexico border.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Buckingham\u2019s letter came less than two weeks after the city of Presidio and Presidio County\u2019s economic development organization sued the Trump administration<\/a> saying the federal government\u2019s plans to install barriers and other detection technology on the border along the Rio Grande will damage communities and cause flooding in the Big Bend area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Friday\u2019s letter, Buckingham told CBP and its contractor Barnard that the latter had trespassed and \u201csignificantly altered\u201d the GLO-managed land by using \u201cheavy construction equipment to blade the terrain and remove all vegetation in its path.\u201d The pictures that the GLO provided show land that has been dug up and crushed by excavators. It\u2019s not clear what the land is being cleared for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not about border security \u2014 it\u2019s about the sovereignty of the state of Texas. It is absolutely unacceptable for any federal contractor to enter and deface Texas state lands,\u201d Buckingham said in a written statement. \u201cAs the steward of over 13 million acres, it is my duty to defend the people of Texas\u2019s interests and immutable control of their state lands from any encroachment \u2014 and I won\u2019t apologize for it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Turmoil around the prospective CBP plans for expanding the border barriers in Presidio County has grown over the past weeks as residents organize to oppose the border wall<\/a>. Hundreds of neighbors who own land across the border have received letters throughout the year from CBP, urging them to let contractors on their land or risk losing it through eminent domain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Buckingham said in the letter that Barnard illegally entered three different sections of land, part of a 10,000-acre hunting, recreation and grazing lease held by Trans Pecos Ice LLC, a property management company, but managed by GLO.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said the damage by the company devalued the GLO\u2019s lease and the ability for it to generate revenue. The agency manages 13 million acres of land, including leases that make money for the Permanent School Fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am committed to maintaining a positive relationship with CBP, but we will not allow rogue actors who breached our agreement to undermine the incredible work we do for Texas,\u201d Buckingham said in a news release.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The letter said that Trans Pecos may have given Barnard permission to cross the GLO lands to access other patches of the border that the company privately owns, but emphasized that the lease with the GLO doesn\u2019t allow modifying the state\u2019s land. The federal government has awarded Barnard, a Montana firm run by a donor of President Donald Trump, several federal contracts worth billions of dollars to build the border wall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still investigating the extent of the communications between Trans Pecos and Barnard. Regardless, the lease does not allow for any land modifications, excavation, or construction on the property without the GLO\u2019s express written consent, which has not been given to Trans Pecos, Barnard, or CBP,\u201d the letter said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Local media <\/a>have previously reported collaboration between both companies to build the wall on Trans Pecos\u2019 border land across Presidio, Jeff Davis and Hudspeth, the same counties where the financial organization is leasing soil from the GLO.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A CBP spokesperson said Friday evening that the agency has been made aware of the situation and that the contractor is responsible for verifying where they have legal access to property. <\/p>\n

\u201cCBP values its partnership with the TX GLO, and we are working to resolve this issue with the Contractor and the TX GLO to ensure this does not happen in the future,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Barnard didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment. The Tribune has also reached out to Benjamin Siddons and Ryan Seiders, Trans Pecos\u2019 registered agent and manager, respectively, according to Secretary of State\u2019s filings, but they have not responded. Seiders is also the co-founder of popular cooler brand Yeti.<\/p>\n

The GLO has not received any response from CBP, Barnard or Trans Pecos yet, the agency told The Texas Tribune. The GLO didn\u2019t answer a question about the nature of the project CBP is developing on the land.<\/p>\n

In the letter, the GLO urged CBP, Barnard and Trans Pecos to return the land to its original condition and to develop a \u201cproposed reclamation plan to present to GLO for approval.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61695,4556,145,28738,62821,90271,27,29,28,6473],"class_list":["post-394392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-border-wall","tag-dawn-buckingham","tag-donald-trump","tag-eminent-domain","tag-permanent-school-fund","tag-presidio-county","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-well-a-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394392","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=394392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}