Big Bend National Park could see vehicle barriers, patrol roads under latest changes to border wall plans

From Marfa Public Radio:

This is a developing story and may be updated.

The Trump administration is once again planning to install physical border barriers within Big Big National Park in West Texas, according to an updated map of “Smart Wall” projects that now shows plans for a “vehicle barrier system” and “patrol roads” in the park.

The change appeared on a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) website sometime Tuesday, and came just weeks after CBP backed away from plans for border barriers in the national park in favor of a “detection technology” only project.

A CBP spokesperson did not immediately comment on the change.

It was first noticed by anti-wall advocates who are closely monitoring the agency’s border wall projects map.

“As we’ve warned – the map can and will change with no public notice, no Congressional approval, no nothing,” Laiken Jordahl, an advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, wrote in a post on X noting the updated map.

It’s not clear whether the vehicle barriers would be temporary or permanent.

As of Wednesday morning, the CBP map showed a new plan for 17 miles of “vehicle border barriers” along different segments of the Rio Grande within the national park. The map shows the vehicle barriers would go up at a river access point near Lajitas on the park’s western boundary and near the remote Mariscal Canyon area within the park, among other locations.

The updated map also shows CBP is now planning to build vehicle barriers along the border across southeastern Brewster County and through Terrell County to the Del Rio area. Some stretches of the project would be built a few miles north of federally protected portions of the Rio Grande.

In addition to the vehicle barriers, CBP on Tuesday added plans for “patrol roads” across the southern portions of Big Bend National Park and neighboring Big Bend Ranch State Park.

It’s not clear what the patrol roads or vehicle barriers would actually look like. CBP has not publicly released many details about the “Smart Wall” plans despite requests for more information from citizens and local officials.

The advocacy group National Parks Conservation Association criticized the move in a statement Wednesday.

“Over the past couple of days, Customs and Border Protection officials have drastically changed the maps for their proposed border wall at Big Bend more than once,” said Cary Dupuy, the group’s Texas Regional Director. “National park advocates and members of impacted West Texas communities have received little to no notice about these changes, and there has been zero transparency on what impacts this new border wall plan will have on Big Bend National Park.”

Historically, CBP has often relied on what it calls “Normandy” vehicle barriers – 3-foot tall steel barriers shaped like an X that are meant to stop vehicles from crossing the border illegally.

The portions of Big Bend National Park where the vehicle barriers are now planned are mostly along rugged and isolated stretches of the Rio Grande with similarly rugged and sparsely populated terrain on the Mexican side.

Bob Krumenaker, the national park’s former superintendent and current chair of the group Keep Big Bend Wild, reacted to the change in plans Tuesday.

“If this is real, their proposed impact on the national park now would extend far from the river,” he said in an email. “CBP provides no info about what a vehicle barrier and patrol road looks like — but with absolutely no vehicle traffic crossing the Rio Grande, there’s zero rationale for a vehicle barrier. Are they clutching at straws? Do they have any idea of the actual situation on the ground?”

Outside of the national park, the Trump administration is still moving forward with a 175-mile border wall in the greater Big Bend region.That project would stretch across Hudspeth, Jeff Davis and Presidio counties and is now the subject of a federal lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity and local residents.

Though CBP has remained mostly silent about the wall plan, there have been recent signs of it moving forward. Local officials are still in talks about border wall-related work on a county road in the area, while CBP confirmed to Marfa Public Radio this week that representatives with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been in the region doing real estate title research related to the project.

If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and marfapublicradio.org.