A newly-launched nonprofit group is calling on state and federal leaders to create a $2 billion border security fund for the Big Bend region as an alternative to the Trump administration's border wall plans.
“The premise is that all of us have been against something — i.e. the barriers — now we need to be for something,” said Jerry Patterson, a former Texas Land Commissioner and board member of the new organization, dubbed Let Texans Do Texas.
The group shared with Marfa Public Radio a letter that it plans to send to elected officials on Friday, including Gov. Greg Abbott and members of the U.S. House from Texas. In the letter, the group writes that the Big Bend region — famous for its iconic parks and rugged terrain — needs a different, more collaborative border security solution. The group says a number of county judges and sheriffs from the area are backing the proposal.
“Instead of imposing a one-size-fits-all federal construction program, LTDT would bring Texas, affected counties, landowners, local law enforcement, and the federal government together to design a security system suited to the Big Bend,” the letter states.
The group notes that the federal government is looking to spend over $7 billion on border barriers in the region, which accounted for just 1.3% of apprehensions along the entire southwest border last year.
“The least-trafficked sector should not receive one of the most destructive security responses,” the letter states.
Specifically, the advocacy group is asking that funding for the Trump administration’s border wall plans — approved by Congress in 2025 — be reallocated to other border security solutions, like road improvements, equipment, communications, emergency medical services, vehicles, drones, aircrafts and more.
“ Walls and soldiers are not a 21st century solution,” said Susan Hays, Democratic candidate for Presidio County Commissioner and LTDT board member. “ Instead, we need a solution that has input from local communities and supports local communities economically. Not to mention preserving the nature of the Big Bend, our land and our water.”
The participating counties include Hudspeth, Culberson, Jeff Davis, Presidio, Brewster, Terrell and Val Verde.
The group’s letter, which includes draft federal legislation, calls for the creation of the “Permanent Trust for Big Bend Region Border Security.” It asks that Congress halt construction of the Big Bend border wall, cancel the awarded contracts and allocate $2 billion to endow the new trust.
It also calls for bipartisanship and the creation of a board to oversee the fund “designed to minimize political whims,” headed up by the Secretary of State and including former politicians, landowners and county officials. The Gov, Lt. Gov and Speaker will have the power to appoint board members, Patterson said.
“ We wanna give the Governor and the Legislature confidence that this is not gonna be a renegade outfit, that folks in Austin will also be apprised of what's going on,” he said.
Under the group’s proposed legislation, the trust cannot fund any initiatives that involve the seizure of private property.
Patterson estimates that around 200,000 to 700,000 acres of Texas land could be effectively ceded to Mexico if the Big Bend border wall were to be built along the Rio Grande. But, he argued, private property rights and state sovereignty don’t need to be sacrificed to obtain a secure border.
“ Republicans always talk about local control. Republicans always talk about property rights and state sovereignty,” Patterson said. “We're trying to broaden our support by focusing on those things as well as just stopping illegal immigration.”
Hays said other border security initiatives like Gov. Abbott’s controversial Operation Lone Star program — which offers grants to local law enforcement along the border — have been “performative” and ineffective.
“We have these political whims that whiplash the border. It's like clockwork every 10 years or so and nothing ever changes,” she said. “It disrupts our lives and we wanna break that cycle.”
LTDT’s proposal also requests additional Congressional protections for Big Bend National Park, following bulldozing by border wall contractors that took place near Santa Elena Canyon and Mariscal Mountain earlier this year which “demonstrated the vulnerability of one of America's most treasured national parks to large-scale federal construction projects,” the letter said.
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