Border Patrol chief sounded almost ‘apologetic’ in his meetings with local officials.
Two days of meetings this week between Customs and Border Protection Big Bend Sector Chief Lloyd Easterling and local elected officials has made one thing crystal clear—if the Department of Homeland Security continues as planned, a steel border wall will be erected from midway in Big Bend Ranch State Park westward through Redford and Presidio all the way to Fort Quitman, south of Sierra Blanca. Construction will begin as soon as June 1.
Information from the Friday morning session at the CBP headquarters in Presidio came from sources who attended the meetings, which were invitation-only and closed to the public and media. Those sources requested not to be named to protect their ongoing relationships with CBP. However, Alpine Mayor Catherine Eaves posted to Facebook a summary of her notes from a Tuesday meeting at CBP headquarters in Alpine. Her notes mirror much of what Presidio County sources outlined.
Invitees for Presidio County included Sheriff Danny Dominguez, County Judge Joe Portillo, Presidio Mayor John Ferguson and all Presidio County commissioners and Presidio City Council members. It’s unclear who was invited in Brewster County, but Eaves’ post noted Sheriff Ronny Dodson specifically.
As previously reported, Easterling said Big Bend National Park is still marked for “detection technology” only instead of a wall, but at the Presidio meeting, he often commented, “This is the situation today.” For the state park, he said a wall of some sort would be built at the Colorado Canyon boat ramp to River Road (Highway 170) and that the popular Hoodoos Trail would be walled off.
Most of the information from the meetings has been reported before by Big Bend Sentinel and others, but hearing it directly from the CBP chief’s mouth should counter many individuals on social media who comment that any reporting on a physical wall is “clickbait,” “lies,” or the liberal media acting like “Chicken Little.”
Some new details did emerge. Easterling said CBP planned to give business owners like river guides access to the Rio Grande with gate codes. A Presidio official asked him, “What about the public?” since the park is public land, and the chief responded that it was a good question to look into. Also notable was Easterling’s affirmation that no buoy barriers, the big orange balls chained together, would be used on the Rio Grande.
Easterling also said landowners with walls blocking the river would be given access to the river, but a Presidio official asked, “What about the cattle and the horses, deer and other animals?” to which the chief did not have an answer.
When a Presidio official specifically asked about a wall through Redford, a small community of about 100 people 16 miles east of Presidio, with farmers needing access to the river, Easterling described both the state park and Redford as “hot spots” that could be subject to change. The chief also added that once a wall is built through Presidio, the concertina wire lining the banks of the river there would be removed. The wire has been a chief concern of residents and river guides and officials who assert that flooding, which often comes with a seasonal monsoon, could wash the dangerous wire miles down river.
Easterling also told Presidio officials that plans were for a caliche road—closed to the public—the entire length of the border wall and all the way to El Paso.
Eaves’ post noted: “The Big Bend Sector Border Patrol agents are against a physical wall in this area. It is not needed. Technology alone can handle the very low rate of illegal crossings.”
According to Eaves, Easterling said illegal crossings are still down for the sector and stats show only 159 “gottaways”—crossers not apprehended—for the fiscal year starting October 1.
Presidio officials said Easterling often sounded “apologetic” in his remarks, but added that much of that tone could be attributed to not meeting with elected officials sooner.
At several points in the Presidio meeting, Easterling mentioned Gov. Greg Abbott, as if he may play a key role in decision-making on the wall, in addition to officials at the Department of Homeland Security.
Eaves added in her post: “An important thing to note from the CBP told us in that meeting to keep signing the petitions and to keep reaching out to our elected officials. To focus on the economy and how damaging the park, river access, the night skies, and the wildlife would be devastating to our economy. Also, to have friends and family from all over the state of Texas, as well as all over the country and possibly the world, reach out to the same legislators and sign the petitions. Border Patrol also said that the map [for Big Bend National Park] was quickly and quietly changed, and that that could happen again, so keep watching it.”