Six weeks ago I told you they were coming for Big Bend. Yesterday a court cleared the way for border wall construction in the Big Bend National Park region.
Here's what makes this so enraging:
Big Bend National Park is one of the quietest stretches of the entire southern border. In FY2025, the Big Bend sector recorded just 3,096 apprehensions — 1.3% of all crossings nationwide. Border encounters there have dropped 74% since 2023. The land is remote, rugged, and brutal. It has always been its own deterrent.
And yet — a 30-foot steel wall is coming anyway.
What that wall will actually do: fragment critical habitat for black bears, mountain lions, and the endangered black-capped vireo. Sever one of the last wildlife corridors connecting the U.S. and Mexican Chihuahuan Desert — an ecosystem that doesn't recognize borders.
Block the natural movement of over 450 bird species that pass through Big Bend. Flood one of the darkest night skies in North America with construction lights. Slice through 100 miles of the Wild and Scenic Rio Grande.
To stop 1.3% of border crossings. On land that was already stopping them on its own.
The administration has now waived the Endangered Species Act, the National Park Service Organic Act, and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act — all at once — to make this happen. The first time in U.S. history any of that has been done inside a national park.
They awarded $4.3 billion in contracts. Steel bollards are already on the ground near Van Horn. Construction starts this summer.
Who do YOU think this wall is actually for?
#DemsUnited
ALT Sunlit canyon walls rise steeply above a calm river in Big Bend. Golden morning light illuminates the rock face on the left while the river winds through the narrow canyon beneath a clear blue sky.