Big Bend National Park safe for now
On March 5, as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was stepping down from her position, the lines on a proposed border wall map mysteriously changed to remove Big Bend National Park from a designation that would make steel walls more likely.
The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) “smart wall” map shows existing and proposed walls color coded for their status and whether they would be a “primary system” (green)—which could include steel, 30-foot walls, along with sensors, lights, roads and cameras—or “detection technology” only (orange), meaning no physical wall. The Big Bend section of the map went from green to orange. However, a large swath of Big Bend Ranch State Park remains green for possible steel walls, as does the stretch west through Presidio and on to Fort Quitman south of Sierra Blanca.
Additionally, construction contracts recently awarded to companies and letters sent to landowners threatening the taking of their land with eminent domain signal that physical wall construction is still moving forward. Two landowners with ranches on the Rio Grande showed Big Bend Sentinel those letters and said the recent map change means nothing as far as they are concerned, since they still are under the threat of the government taking their land and are in areas marked with the green line on the map. One noted that CBP was offering them $5,000 for access to their ranch for construction with the possibility of a $2,000 monthly lease of land.
It’s unclear if Noem’s departure had anything to do with the map switch. She had been heavily criticized for a $233 million advertising contract—which featured her in videos talking tough on border security—given to political allies, and President Trump was reportedly unhappy about the deal, as were U.S. senators who grilled her in a congressional hearing on the matter.
CBP released a statement to told outlets: “As CBP continues to work to implement President Trump’s Executive Order 14165, ‘Securing our Borders’ and Proclamation 10142, ‘declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States,’ it continues to develop and finalize its execution plan for border barrier construction funded by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. CBP is currently focusing on the top operational priorities with historical rates of high illegal entry where illegal aliens regularly attempt to enter the United States.”
Opponents of the border wall celebrated the map change as at least an optimistic point in their battle against the wall, although many questioned whether the map could change back to include the park again (the map has changed several times).
“While this shift from potential ‘physical wall’ to ‘detection technology’ is a signal that the public pressure is working, lack of transparency means we don’t know if this is a real policy shift or a tactical one designed to lower our guard,” No Big Bend Border Wall, the opposition group, posted in a statement. “Map colors can easily change. ‘Detection technology’ may still significantly impact the environment, limit access to public land and compromise private property rights via installation and maintenance. We just don’t know yet.”
The $46.5 billion DHS border project budget, including some $4 billion-plus for the Big Bend Sector, is still in place, and a contract was awarded last week to a Montana construction firm for “border barrier construction project.”
For more stories, see bigbendsentinel.com/borderwall.
This story was update on March 9 to include a statement from CBP and additional details on eminent domain letters.