With the towering, 1,500-foot tall cliffs of Santa Elena Canyon behind them, a mix of river guides, local leaders and outdoor enthusiasts gathered Wednesday in Big Bend National Park to urge federal officials to reverse course on border security plans slated for this beloved pocket of Far West Texas.
Shouts of “No Big Bend Wall” echoed off the canyon’s limestone cliffs.
“The battle is just beginning,” said Billy Miller, a local river guide, who is also a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security.
In recent days, federal contractors have moved heavy machinery into the national park and have cleared vegetation near the canyon. Surveyor markers now dot the river corridor. Southwest Valley Constructors, the Albuquerque-based firm awarded $1.7 billion for the Trump administration’s border security infrastructure plans within the national park, has erected a yard north of the park where it’s clearing land and bringing in excavators, bulldozers and RV trailers.
“If you had $1.7 billion to spend in this park, with bulldozers and excavators, there is no way that damage will not occur,” Bernadette Devine, a local educator and former river guide, said at Wednesday’s demonstration. “There is no possible way that this park will be unscathed.”
In this area of the Big Bend, the latest plans from U.S. Customs and Border Protection call for a mix of vehicle barriers, surveillance technology and 200 miles of new “patrol roads” across the national park.
In the scorching summer heat on Wednesday, around 150 protestors – some standing in the waters of the Rio Grande and others on the river’s sandy banks – held signs depicting the region’s wildlife, animals they say are at risk from any kind of border security infrastructure: black bears, mountain lions, peregrine falcons, road runners and beavers. Other signs were seemingly directed at federal contractors: “You shall not pass;” “The road to hell is paved,” “Keep your $1.7 billion payoff and please LEAVE.”
Bob Krumenaker, a former superintendent at Big Bend and current chair of the group Keep Big Bend Wild, said the work that has already happened near Santa Elena Canyon has damaged a riparian forest that’s home to the yellow-billed cuckoo, a thin and long-tailed bird the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has identified as a threatened species.
"It's just a tragic scene right now,” Krumenaker said in an interview earlier this week. “Although it's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the damage they may or will do to the national park if this continues."
In a recent statement to Marfa Public Radio, CBP said the project within the national park hasn’t officially started and that construction crews in recent days have been “re-grading roads that were damaged by recent storms that are required for access to conduct surveys.” Still, photos and videos captured by activists in recent days showed crews also clearing vegetation near Santa Elena Canyon, and Marfa Public Radio on Wednesday witnessed the cleared path of that work near the canyon. CBP has not explained the vegetation-clearing work.
Big Bend officials have in recent days closed multiple parts of the national park to accommodate the border project work.
On Wednesday, the park said in an alert on its website that it was closing multiple areas near Santa Elena Canyon to public access until further notice “due to ongoing construction.” The closed areas near the canyon include a boat ramp used for access to the Rio Grande. The park also said Old Maverick Road – a popular and relatively easy to access off-road scenic route – was closed due to construction as well. The road leads to multiple campsites near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Another popular off-road route in the park that leads to the Rio Grande – Glenn Springs Road – was also closed earlier this week, but was reopened to visitors as of Wednesday morning.
The park said in its alerts about the closures that they were being enacted “in furtherance of the Department of Homeland Security Infrastructure project.” The alerts did not provide any other specifics about the nature of the construction work, timelines for the work or any indication of what other areas of the park may be closed.
The National Park Service has not responded to multiple emailed questions about the construction happening in Big Bend over the past week.
Other speakers at Wednesday's demonstration encouraged the crowd to contact their representatives and called for Texas politicians to step in.
When asked for comment, Gov. Greg Abbott’s office offered a statement that it has repeatedly shared in recent months.
“Rugged, isolated areas like Big Bend are great opportunities to deploy technology to aid in securing the border,” Abbott press secretary Andrew Mahaleris said.
On Friday, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, one of the state’s top Republican officials, released a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, asking federal officials to meet with local leaders and residents in the Big Bend before moving forward with any additional work.
“My constituents believe that the 1,000-foot riverbank cliffs and remote Big Bend terrain offers its own source of deterrence for any illegal migrants crossing into the United States,” Cornyn wrote in his Aug. 7 letter.
Raymond Skiles, a retired wildlife biologist who worked in the national park for three decades, reminded the crowd that gathered at Santa Elena Canyon Wednesday about the history of conservation and preservation that led to the creation of public lands like Big Bend National Park.
“Here we are today trying to protect that legacy,” Skiles said. “We stand on the shoulders of people who struggled mightily for what we got. We have it on our shoulders, will it be what they envisioned? That’s up to us.”
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.