Border landowners are rallying behind a demand for Gov. Greg Abbott to convene meetings between them and federal officials for more dialogue and details on the proposed border wall and other security infrastructure.
“Abbott needs to step up and deliver these meetings,” said Charlie Angell, who runs a river guide and park expedition company out of Redford on the border. Angell said he now has more than 116 names—many of them provided to Big Bend Sentinel with phone numbers—of landowners who are standing behind that message. “When we get our meeting with these agencies … every single property owner will have their voice heard,” Angell said.
Angell said his list is growing larger by the hour as word spreads of the demand, as many landowners are angry, confused and anxious about losing the quality of life they’ve built on the Rio Grande.
Agencies landowners are seeking to meet with publicly include the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers. Landowners are of the belief that Abbott has the influence to at least attempt the meetings and that his relatively tame comments on the border wall itself are not sufficient as the top official in Texas.
As for the when and where for these meetings, Angell said, “Let them figure it out.” He added that it’s likely that landowners will convene their own meetings first to discuss the issues.
The governor’s office did not reply to a request for comment.
On Monday, the Border Patrol told a local official that Big Bend Ranch State Park would now be “detection technology” only with no physical walls. (See the related story on this page.) That designation eventually was given to Big Bend National Park as well.
Hector Hernandez, who owns land on the river near Alamito Creek where a steel bollard wall is still a possibility, said a federal worker told him they would give him a gate to access the river and that he would still be able to draw water from the river, which led him to believe officials don’t understand his predicament. “I have a herd of horses,” he said. “It’s not the water. It’s the land by the river is their pasture land. What will I do then?”
“Meeting face to face is the West Texas way,” Hernandez added. “I want to be able to sit down with someone to get answers.”
Some of the landowners in areas designated “detection technology” only also believe that public meetings would offer more assurance on what actually will be the result of CBP’s “smart wall” project, meaning a combination of physical walls, lights, patrol roads and sensors. Most of the landowners have received letters from CBP stating that the government would be seeking land access, leases or acquisitions with the possibility of eminent domain—seizing their land with little legal means to fight it.
Raymond Skiles, who has land out by Langtry—171 miles southeast of Marfa on the border— noted that the CBP documents sent to him included a map with a line representing a smart wall going through a cemetery, where his parents are buried, on land adjacent to him. He said he’d like to publicly hear answers on what really is planned and how any roads and detection technology will impact him. He also questions whether CBP will change its mind and install a wall.
Christian Soenen, with land west of Del Rio, has similar concerns, including what lights and other infrastructure could do to the wildlife on his land, where his family camps and sees deer, bears and mountain lions. And he wonders if things will change to even greater infrastructure. “Currently, the plan here is not to build a wall, but to use detection technology,” he said. “But they’ve been pretty clear in saying that that’s not a definite thing, that that’s just the current plan, and there’s no guarantee that it won’t refer back. So we’re still nervous.”
“I would love it if they would directly engage with us, talk through these issues, explain their rationale, get feedback, all of that,” Soenen added.