US weighs smaller border project in Big Bend National Park
The Trump administration says it is considering reducing the scope of a planned border-security project in Texas’s Big Bend National Park after opposition from environmental groups, residents and businesses. Customs and Border Protection says it will decide in early October, with ground-disturbing work delayed for several weeks afterward.
The Trump administration is considering reducing the scope of a planned border-security project in Big Bend National Park in Texas, according to court filings cited by ABC News. Customs and Border Protection said it was actively considering adjustments that could reduce the project’s scale and avoid or minimise potential effects, taking account of input from the National Park Service and other stakeholders. The agency said it would make a final decision in the first week of October.
Any ground-disturbing work would begin several weeks after that decision, the agency said. A pause on construction-related activity, introduced in August while officials consulted opponents, was due to end on Wednesday. The filings did not specify what elements might be removed or altered.
The project has faced opposition over concerns that it would damage the park’s remote landscape. CBP had earlier withdrawn plans for a 30-foot-tall bollard wall through the park, but resistance continued over proposed roads, lights, vehicle barriers and surveillance technology. After bulldozers were seen clearing land in August, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott announced a pause on activity in the park.
The agency later extended it to an area upstream. CBP has said the work observed was design and planning rather than full-scale construction. Opponents urged the administration to maintain the pause.
Bob Krumenaker of Keep Big Bend Wild said the Border Patrol already worked with the park service and local sheriffs on surveillance involving sensors and patrols. The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks described construction as damaging to an exceptional landscape. The project forms part of a $46 billion administration plan for steel barriers, vehicle obstacles and surveillance technology along the US-Mexico border.
The government says it is building 12 miles of wall a week, while landowners, tribes and environmental groups have challenged the work over cost, necessity and possible damage to sensitive sites.
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