A physical wall west up the border still in the plans, with construction as soon as June
Steel border walls have been removed from plans for scenic sections of River Road and popular Rio Grande access points in Big Bend Ranch State Park, according to a message relayed to a local official by Lloyd Easterling, the chief patrol agent for the U.S. Border Patrol’s Big Bend Sector.
Steel walls west of the park through Redford, Presidio and up the river to Fort Quitman are still in plans, leaving many landowners concerned that their livelihoods with ranching and farming will be destroyed.
Easterling conveyed the change to Presidio County Commissioner Deirdre Hisler, who attended a meeting with the chief and other county and city elected officials on Friday. The media was not allowed at the meeting. Hisler shared her notes with Big Bend Sentinel Sunday evening after fact checking them with Easterling. At Friday’s meeting, physical walls in the state park were still planned, including a wall at Colorado Canyon and a wall blocking access to the popular Hoodoos Trail on the river.
A “smart wall” map published by the Department of Homeland Security still showed the park with the possibility of a wall on Monday morning, but Hisler said Easterling told her it would be updated to “detection only,” as is Big Bend National Park.
“While the Chief and many members of our local CBP partners are sympathetic to the potential construction of a wall, Easterling made it very clear that they have a job to do and that they do believe that a wall is an essential tool for their operations but that a physical wall is not necessarily appropriate for all areas of the border,” Hisler wrote in her notes from the Friday meeting.
Hisler’s notes also included: “A barrier, such as that of a 30-foot-high/steel bollard wall serves as a physical barrier designed to curb illegal immigration by slowing cross-border activity and allowing for faster response times by Border Patrol Agents, especially in heavily populated areas like that of Presidio/Ojinaga. The wall will be part of a system that also includes all-weather patrol roads, lighting, cameras and sensors.”
Border Patrol chief sounded almost “apologetic”
In two days of meetings last week between Easterling and local elected officials, the chief indicated that construction could begin as soon as June 1.
Information from the Friday morning session at the CBP headquarters in Presidio came from Hisler’s notes and sources who attended the meetings, which were invitation-only. Those sources requested not to be named to protect their ongoing relationships with CBP. However, in addition to Hisler’s notes, 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 and Hisler’s notes 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 Sheriff Ronny Dodson confirmed he was in attendance.
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.”
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 told officials CBP planned to give business owners like river guides access to the Rio Grande with gate codes—something that would no longer be needed if the plans for no wall in the parks remain. (Although recreational paddlers do access the entirety of the river at other points.) A Presidio official had 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, as was clear with the park by Monday.
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. Although Presidio County sources added that this number of gottaways were of concern to the Border Patrol.
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.”