The Trump administration is moving to waive a wide range of federal environmental regulations to speed up border wall construction in the remote Big Bend region of West Texas, including a portion of Big Bend Ranch State Park, according to a preliminary federal notice released Friday.
The waivers – aimed at “expeditious construction of barriers and roads” – are set to apply to a lengthy stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border from Fort Quitman in Hudspeth County through Presidio and the Colorado Canyon area of the state park.
The move is the latest sign that plans for border wall building in this rugged corner of the Chihuahuan Desert are moving forward in earnest.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told Marfa Public Radio this week that federal contracts for Big Bend area projects under the administration’s border-wide “Smart Wall” plan could be awarded “in the coming weeks and months,” with actual construction expected to begin “toward the end of the year.”
Among the federal regulations to be waived for the project are the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and a variety of wildlife and historic resources protection laws. The waivers, based on the regulatory notice details, do not appear to apply to stretches of the border within Big Bend National Park, where CBP has indicated it is pursuing a “technology only” border security project under the Smart Wall plan.
Asked about the waivers, a spokesperson for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said the department "has not received a request from the federal government for any border-barrier infrastructure within Big Bend Ranch State Park."
The border wall plans have alarmed Big Bend area officials and residents alike. The notion of physical border barriers in this sparsely populated region – beloved for its mountainous vistas, sprawling state and national parks and scenic Rio Grande corridor – had until recent years been considered a far flung idea opposed by even some Republicans.
At a regional water conference panel discussion in Alpine on Thursday, top elected officials for Brewster, Hudspeth and Pecos counties expressed concern with the idea of border walls in the region.
Hudspeth County Judge Joanna “JoJo” Mackenzie, a Republican, described the plan as a “band-aid to make people feel better who don't live here,” while Brewster County Judge Greg Henington – also a Republican and longtime river outfitter in the Terlingua area – said there was “no reason” for a wall in the region.
Federal officials have so far declined to say where exactly a physical wall will or will not be built in the area, but a CBP spokesperson said this week that the entire 517-mile stretch of the border in the agency’s Big Bend Sector is slated for new border security infrastructure or upgrades.
“Depending on terrain and operational requirements, each area may receive any combination of barrier installation, technology deployment, and road improvements,” spokesperson Landon Hutchens said in a statement.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office said in a statement to Marfa Public Radio this week that the governor “fully supports using every tool and strategy to aid in the Trump Administration's deterrence of illegal immigrants attempting to make the illegal and dangerous trek across the southern border.”
Democratic state Sen. César Blanco, whose district includes much of the Big Bend, called the waivers “deeply troubling.”
“Big Bend is one of the most ecologically unique and fragile regions in our country,” Blanco said in a statement. “Waiving longstanding environmental protections threatens wildlife migration, damages sensitive desert habitats, and puts our land and water resources at risk.”
Much of the Trump administration’s border security infrastructure plans stem from an executive order the president issued on the first day of his second term directing the Homeland Security and Defense Department secretaries to “take all appropriate action” to “ensure complete operational control” of the border.
The new federal regulatory waiver notice, which cites that order, describes the Big Bend region as an “area of high illegal entry” where agents apprehended more than 89,000 people attempting to cross the southern border illegally between 2021 and 2025.
Still, Big Bend has historically been one of the least-trafficked regions of the entire U.S.-Mexico border. By comparison, during that same time period from 2021 to 2025, the agency apprehended more than 1.5 million people attempting to cross the border in the Rio Grande Valley, according to government figures in a similar regulatory waiver issued for that region last year.
The border wall plans come as the administration itself in recent months has celebrated border crossing numbers being at record lows. CBP data show just 584 people were apprehended attempting to cross in the Big Bend region so far this fiscal year, compared to more than 4,500 in South Texas during the same time period.
Laiken Jordahl, an advocate with the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity who has tracked border wall building across the Southwest, called the Big Bend area plans a “grotesque act of political vandalism” in the “wildest stretch of Texas.”
“Trump and his cowardly border officials want to rob this iconic place from all of us, locking away our swimming holes, hiking trails and desert vistas behind a monstrous steel wall, even as border crossings are at record lows,” he said.
This story has been updated to include a comment from TPWD.
Marfa Public Radio’s Mary Cantrell contributed reporting.
This reporting was made possible by generous donations from supporters like you. Please consider making a donation to Marfa Public Radio to fund the journalism you rely on.
