I'd been working on a story about the proposed border wall that aimed to bisect Big Bend National Park in Texas for the last few weeks, having recently spoken with Bob Krumenaker, the Chair of Keep Big Bend Wild, as well as being the former superintendent for Big Bend, about the proposal.
The idea was to illustrate that Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) plans for Big Bend, and the construction of a border wall through the pristine wilderness and paving one of the coolest off-road trails around—the Black Gap and River Roads—were a bad idea. And the feds were making the same argument here as they were with when they called to kill the Roadless Rule a few months prior: It's for homeland security.
But just as everyone hates the idea of losing public lands for that argument, everyone hated this one, too. Texans hated the idea. Environmentalists hated the idea. Off-roaders hated the idea. Hell, even the most gun-toting Republican Texan around, Guntuber Brandon Herrera, came together with his Democratic colleagues and spoke out against it.
"Democrats don’t want this wall in Big Bend," Herrera told The Guardian, adding, "Republicans don’t want this wall in Big Bend. Independents don’t want this wall in Big Bend. Sheriffs don’t want this wall in Big Bend. The tourists don’t want this wall in Big Bend. Nobody wants this wall in Big Bend."
Moreover, CBP and Department of the Interior already had a Memorandum of Understanding where the two organizations worked together on security issues throughout this and other national parks lands. So really, there was no need for a border wall, especially through such rugged terrain.
But in the interim of talking with Krumenaker and writing this story, a lot has happened. First, CBP's Commissioner, Rodney Scott, came out and emphatically stated, "We pulled [the idea for a physical wall] down [to] try to make [it] a little more clear," Scott told the Washington Examiner, adding, "Big Bend National Park has some just, like, unbelievably huge granite cliffs. It would be kind of silly to put like a 30-foot border wall on top of a 90-foot granite cliff. So what we’re trying to convey is that we are going to have meaningful border security in that entire area."
Many were elated and relieved by such a statement, even though Scott mentioned adding more roads, more surveillance technology, and more infrastructure to the park. Contentious subjects, and those to be fought over, but they didn't have the destruction that both sides of the aisle had fought against in recent months.
Then, just over the weekend, a bombshell dropped from the Texas Tribune. The contract to build the physical wall had already been awarded. And to the tune of $1.7 billion of your tax dollars.
According to the Texas Tribune, "U.S. Customs and Border Protection awarded a $1.7 billion federal contract listed for border wall construction in the Big Bend region, fueling public confusion over the project after a previous assurance from a top agency official that no barriers would be built at the region’s national park."But little confusion is within the contract's wording, as it specifically states, "For border wall in Big Bend, Texas," and allocates a whopping $1.7 billion of our tax dollars to fund the project. But it specifically is for the national park, as their own maps denote it.
Gotta love the description section on a government check, don't you?
The Tribune reached out to CBP for comment, since Scott said a week prior that they aren't building the physical wall, but the agency hasn't yet stated anything on the record on the contract as of this writing. The contract's discovery, however, comes only a few weeks after the Department of Homeland Security waived dozens upon dozens of laws to speed up the process so that it can implement additional barriers and walls just downriver from Big Bend National Park. While they have not yet waived those laws within the national park itself, can that be far behind with the contract already awarded?
Our friends over at GearJunkie were one of the first to report the waivers, reporting, "The May 15 waiver allows DHS to ignore several landmark environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act, in order to speed up construction. The agency also waived several Native American and historic preservation laws, including the Antiquities Act, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act. This comes on the heels of an incident in May in Arizona, where a construction contractor for the wall damaged a sacred Indigenous site."
Newly minted DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin stated, "The Big Bend Sector is an area of high illegal entry where illegal aliens regularly attempt to enter the United States and smuggle illicit drugs … Therefore, DHS will take immediate action to construct additional barriers and roads." Now, Mullin doesn't state whether those barriers are within Big Bend National Park, but given the $1.7 billion check above, and the ruggedness of the terrain that likely requires far more intensive labor, you can put two and two together.
And before anyone starts talking about how this could be for road construction, surveillance technology, and other infrastructure projects within the park, do you really think this administration would spend $1.7 billion for anything but a wall? This is hardly an area of high illegal entry, either. CBP’s own data show that the entire Big Bend Sector, which is much larger than just the national park, stretching across 26% of the southern border, has seen less than 1% of migrant apprehensions over the last three years. Data shared by the Border Patrol with the NPS over that same period showed that apprehensions in the national park were less than 0.05% of the total from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico.
"These 118 miles of the Rio Grande have long been the least active section of the entire U.S.-Mexican border," said Krumenaker in a recent op-ep opposing the adding of a physical barrier through the park, adding, "Terrain and remoteness on the Mexican side make it extremely difficult to reach. Plus, more than half of the river through the park is entrenched in deep canyons with walls of their own that stretch higher than the Empire State Building. Just late last year, Customs and Border Protection itself noted that there are areas where terrain acts as a natural barrier."
"We cannot allow this great gift to be desecrated, the former superintendent stated, "Our elected leaders must act to protect Big Bend now and forever."
Hope shouldn't be lost in saving the park's wilderness zones, as well as its Black Gap road. We can all call Congress, leave them messages, email and write, and tell them to stop attempting to destroy one of our nation's best national parks. We can tell them "Not one acre," once again. And we can save Big Bend National Park from being plowed over when it already acts as a natural barrier.
You can also sign up through Keep Big Bend Wild here, and help support those who are on the ground fighting for our national parks, our public lands, and our rights as Americans to continue to have wild places.
