As federal officials remain quiet about the Trump administration’s plan for border wall building across the Big Bend region, new details are emerging from government documents distributed to landowners in the project’s path.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has in recent weeks sent letters to Big Bend area landowners outlining plans for “border barrier system construction” across 175 miles of border in Hudspeth, Jeff Davis and Presidio counties, according to copies of the documents obtained by Marfa Public Radio.
CBP has this month maintained that under the administration’s border-wide “Smart Wall” plan, the entire Big Bend region – including Big Bend National Park – could see “any combination of barrier installation, technology deployment, and road improvements.” But the agency’s communications with landowners point to plans for a lengthy stretch of physical border wall.
CBP did not answer questions about the plan for this story.
The documents describe the plan for Hudspeth, Jeff Davis and Presidio Counties as a “30-foot-high barrier made of six-inch-squared diameter steel bollards,” and state that other parts of the project include drainage gates, fiber optic and power cables, lighting poles, surveillance cameras, staging areas, utility shelters, water use and “up to 12-foot wide maintenance roads and up to 24-foot wide patrol roads.”
For people living along the border, the wall has become a looming threat to their homes and livelihoods.
Joaquin Peña’s family operates a farm on the border in Redford, a small community near Presidio, where they have cultivated alfalfa crops and sold hay for five generations.
“ Our water pump and all our irrigation stuff is right there next to the river, so for them to put a wall up, it would fence us out of our own equipment,” Peña said. “And not only that, it would cut into our actual farm itself. It would cripple us financially.”
The letters sent to property owners state that CBP has “tentatively identified” their properties for “either construction or access purposes.” Peña said his family has yet to receive any notices from CBP.
The agency is currently “engaged in project planning” and inviting impacted property owners to comment on the project’s “potential impacts to the environment, cultural resources, quality of life and commerce, including socioeconomic impacts” with a deadline of March 19, according to the documents. Projects subject to CBP’s environmental planning process are often listed on the agency’s website, but Big Bend area projects were not published there as of Friday.
The documents go on to explain that property owners in the path of the wall can either cooperate with CBP and voluntarily allow the construction of a border barrier on their land, or, if no agreements can be reached, face the potential for eminent domain proceedings initiated by the Department of Justice.
Marfa Public Radio has redacted personal identifying information from the documents it obtained to protect landowners’ privacy. The documents mirror those sent to South Texas residents this month.
CBP said in mid-February that contracts for these projects are expected to be awarded “in the coming weeks and months, with various phases of construction anticipated to commence toward the end of the year, upon completion of land acquisition, and continue over several years.”
Peña said the threat of the wall has always been in the back of his mind, but it didn’t seem like a reality until now. He said any payment from the federal government for a border wall on his family farm would be a “bandaid” and not replace income from hay sales.
“ We've always been taught that farmers are the backbone to this country, and now I'm feeling like they're trying to break that bone.” Peña said. “ At first it was the drought and now it's the wall.”
Widespread opposition emerges as “Smart Wall” plan expands further
Bipartisan opposition to the Big Bend border wall has been widespread since news of the project began circulating this month, with many expressing that border security can be achieved without irrevocably altering one of the nation’s most pristine landscapes.
The “Smart Wall” map on the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) website now shows a total of five projects planned for the Big Bend region, with the newest section stretching from the Lower Canyons of the Rio Grande to Amistad Reservoir. Numerous public parks – including Big Bend Ranch State Park, Big Bend National Park and Seminole Canyon State Park, an ancient rock art site – are under threat of being bifurcated by border barriers, with campsites and boat launches cut off.
Multiple state lawmakers have spoken out against the plan in recent days, including Democratic state Rep. Eddie Morales and state Sen. César Blanco. Republican State Rep. Wes Virdell, who represents the Fort Stockton area, commented against the plan on social media, as did Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico.
Big Bend National Park’s beauty and popularity has aided its cause on social media, where influencer posts and infographics decrying the border wall have been shared widely.
Anna Claire Beasley, a wedding and western lifestyle photographer based near Terlingua, created a change.org petition opposing the construction of the wall that garnered over 30,000 signatures in a week, suggesting the anti-wall sentiment stretches far beyond local circles.
“ I care deeply about this region. I think that it is a part of Texas heritage and the concept of needing this or doing this is just so un-Texan,” Beasley said. “I wanna be as loud as I can about it.”
Josh Flack, an electrical contractor based in Study Butte, said he was recently contacted by Barnard Inc., a company from Bozeman, Montana that has received federal contracts for border wall construction in the past. The company has also reached out to people in Presidio.
Flack told Marfa Public Radio a representative for the company asked him about setting up new electrical service for “man camps” in the area near Lajitas and off of FM 2627, but he turned the potential business down.
“ I just basically told him that I had an obligation to my kids to not be involved in anything like that, and that's probably what he's gonna get from most local businesses,” Flack said.
Local officials are also speaking out against the plan.
The town of Alpine, north of the national park, is one of several communities whose economy relies heavily on tourism driven by park visitation and the region’s international dark sky designation. Big Bend National Park generated nearly $60 million for the local economy in 2025, according to the National Park Service (NPS).
Alpine’s city council is set to meet next week to consider adopting a resolution expressing concern about the proposed border wall and “affirming the importance” of the region’s parks.
Brewster County Judge Greg Henington — a Republican and the county’s top elected official — said county commissioners will consider a similar resolution at a meeting on March 10. Henington, whose county contains the national park, has been vocal in his opposition to the wall from the start.
“A physical wall makes no sense on many levels — cost, practicality, environmental impact, business impact, economic impact from tourism,” Henington said. “It just goes on and on.”
Henington said he’s not against border security, but would rather see money funneled towards improved emergency communications, the handling of unidentified migrant remains and other border security concerns. He said even his office is largely in the dark about the plan and urged the need for more collaboration with CBP.
“Information's coming in dribs and drabs,” he said. “I wish they'd just sit down and say, ‘Here's what we're going to do.’ And then we say, ‘Well, how about doing this?’”
Former Big Bend superintendent, local sheriff push back on the plan
NPS did not answer Marfa Public Radio’s questions about its knowledge and involvement in border wall plans.
The park service said in a statement it “remains committed to protecting public lands while supporting interagency efforts that advance national security and public safety.”
Bob Krumenaker, who worked as the superintendent of Big Bend National Park from 2018 to 2023, said he felt a mix of horror, outrage and fear when he heard the news about a potential border wall coming to his old stomping grounds, then felt motivated to “ expose this bad idea to as many people as possible.”
“ There is some hope that sane minds at some point will say, ‘This is logistically impossible,’ but hope is not a strategy,” Krumenaker said. “A lot of people have to work as hard as possible, I think, to talk about these things as loudly and widely as possible in hopes that some decision makers will make some rational decisions at some point.”
Krumenaker said it has long been the consensus among DHS, CBP and NPS that while border security is important, a border wall in the national park isn’t necessary or feasible. The Big Bend sector has historically been one of the least trafficked areas of the southern border. Apprehensions of people crossing the border illegally fell 74% from 2023 to 2025, according to CBP data.
While environmental issues are top of mind, Krumenaker said there are also a slew of practical concerns regarding hundreds of contractors suddenly descending upon such a remote region.
“There isn't enough water in the park, there isn't enough water in Terlingua,” he said. “How do you deal with the wastewater of hundreds of workers, how do you deal with the human waste and just the plain garbage?”
Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland, who worked as a Border Patrol agent for 26 years, including a stint in the Big Bend sector, is advocating for more technology and road improvements rather than a wall.
“A barrier makes no sense out here,” he said in an interview.
Cleveland said existing technology, including remotely piloted Predator B drones and autonomous surveillance towers are effective in tracking groups of migrants in remote desert reaches and alerting local Border Patrol agents to their locations.
While road improvements are listed as part of the “Smart Wall,” plan, the project map does not currently show which area roads will be targeted for upgrades. Cleveland said road improvements could help ease Border Patrol agents’ access to various locations.
He said there seems to be a “disconnect” between career employees with CBP and political appointees at DHS regarding the updating of the “Smart Wall” map.
“Whoever drew those lines on the map hasn't been out and walked the ground in Big Bend,” Cleveland said. “ Maybe it's more of Secretary [Kristi] Noem trying to get out there and cover her tracks from Minneapolis — from the disaster that was — to focus on the border and say ‘We're doing great things, we're gonna build more fence.’”
Marfa Public Radio’s Travis Bubenik contributed reporting.
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