Trump Administration Begins Building Border Wall In Texas’ Big Bend Region

The Trump administration has begun installing border wall panels in Texas’ Big Bend region, turning months of planning and legal battles into physical construction despite strong opposition from landowners, ranchers, environmental groups and local businesses.

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said border wall panel installation began on September 15 along a 47 mile stretch of Hudspeth County known as Big Bend 1. The project involves 30 foot tall steel panels and forms part of a broader plan for about 175 miles of physical border wall across Hudspeth, Jeff Davis and Presidio counties.

The construction is part of the administration’s roughly $46 billion border security programme, which combines steel walls, vehicle barriers, patrol roads and surveillance technology along the nearly 2,000 mile US Mexico border. CBP says it is now building about 12 miles of barriers a week, twice the pace cited earlier this year, and has completed about 200 miles of new barriers since Trump returned to office.

The wider Big Bend region stretches for roughly 500 miles along the Rio Grande, from south of El Paso to Lake Amistad, and is divided into five project areas. The current wall construction is separate from work associated with Big Bend National Park, where construction activity has been temporarily paused as the administration engages with opponents.

The project has triggered a fresh legal fight. On September 14, landowners, ranchers, business owners and Conserve Big Bend sued the Trump administration, arguing that Homeland Security is improperly using special powers to waive environmental and cultural protection laws. They also dispute the government’s characterization of the region as an area of high illegal entry.

According to CBP data cited in the lawsuit, the Big Bend region accounts for only about 1 per cent of arrests along the US Mexico border, despite containing roughly one quarter of the border’s total length. The plaintiffs argue that this undermines the administration’s justification for using expedited construction authority.

Opposition also centres on private property and the region’s landscape. Earlier CBP documents indicated that affected properties could be needed for construction or access, while landowners have raised concerns about reaching farms, irrigation equipment and the Rio Grande. Environmental and Indigenous groups have separately warned about wildlife, cultural and religious sites.

Clara Benson, a founder of the No Big Bend Wall Coalition, said opponents would continue fighting even after construction began.

“We will continue to fight for this land no matter what the outcome is,” Benson said.