Trump begins Big Bend border wall project amid fierce west Texas opposition

The Trump administration has started installing border wall panels in west Texas's Big Bend region. The move advances its wider border build-out while intensifying resistance from landowners, activists and environmental groups.

In Short

• CBP says barrier construction pace has doubled to 12 miles weekly
• Workers are installing 30-foot steel panels across a 47-mile Hudspeth stretch
• A nearby Big Bend National Park project remains paused during outreach

The Trump administration has begun building a border wall in a section of the Big Bend region in west Texas, marking the first major construction in an area of the US-Mexico border where its plans have faced strong opposition. The move is an important step in the administration's USD 46 billion plan to line the border with walls, barriers, roads and technology, in line with President Donald Trump's campaign promise to complete the wall.

The development also comes as US Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, said it has doubled the pace of wall construction along the US-Mexico border. The agency said it is now building an average of 12 miles of barriers a week across the 2,000-mile border and has recently completed 200 miles of new barriers since the second Trump administration took office.

CBP said in a statement to The Associated Press that "border wall panel installation is underway" in a 47-mile stretch of Hudspeth County in west Texas known as Big Bend 1. The agency said the wider Big Bend region, which runs roughly 500 miles from an area of Hudspeth County south of El Paso to Lake Amistad, has five project areas. It did not say when the panels were installed, but a photo on its website showed a crane lifting one of the 30-foot-tall steel wall panels into place as construction workers stood nearby.

The new work is separate from a border infrastructure project in nearby Big Bend National Park, where the administration has temporarily suspended construction as part of an outreach effort to opponents. Across the broader Big Bend region, CBP has faced organised opposition from landowners, environmental groups, business owners and ranchers, who say the remote area does not see high levels of illegal immigration.

Activists said on Friday that they would continue to oppose border infrastructure projects in the rest of the Big Bend region even as the panels were being installed. Clara Benson, a founder of the No Big Bend Wall Coalition, said the group had received reports of trucks moving supplies into the remote Rio Grande area and that contractors had been clearing yards to store supplies. Speaking from Washington, DC, where she and others were meeting lawmakers, Benson said, "We will continue to fight for this land no matter what the outcome is. We will continue fighting to the end." She added, "You talk to people in West Texas, and they say even if they put it up, we'll fight for them to take it down. So this fight is not over."

The administration is pushing ahead with plans to line the entire border with a mix of 30-foot-tall steel bollard walls, barriers to stop vehicles crossing, new patrol roads and technology aimed at deterring and detecting migrants or smugglers. CBP's current pace is double the rate cited earlier this year by its head, Rodney Scott. The agency has also faced opposition from environmental groups, a small town concerned about flooding, Native Americans who say construction is disturbing sacred sites, and landowners who say their property rights are being affected.

In Texas, much of the opposition has centred on plans for Big Bend National Park, a tourist destination on the Rio Grande in the state's southwest. Outside the park, much of the land along the river is privately owned, and many landowners have resisted government efforts. Earlier this week, landowners, ranchers and business owners in the Big Bend region, along with a nonprofit group working to protect the area's landscape and heritage, filed a lawsuit to stop the administration's plans. Activists and landowners have also attended county meetings to urge elected officials not to cooperate with CBP contractors, while many landowners have refused to let government officials or contractors onto their land for surveys.

In summary, the start of wall construction in west Texas marks a major step for the Trump administration's border plan, but it has also intensified resistance in the Big Bend region, where activists, landowners and local groups say their fight against the project will continue.

With PTI Inputs

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