The Department of Homeland Security has granted billions of dollars in contracts for a series of “smart walls”—a combination of steel bollard walls, detection sensors, lights, cameras and patrol roads—along the Texas border. The efforts to install these walls in the Big Bend has created a backlash. Read all the stories here.
April 4, 2026
Noon
Here’s a must-read from Sam Karas in Texas Monthly on her life on the river and what a wall would mean to her. Here’s a link with no paywall for 14 days, after which here is the standard link.
April 4, 2026
11:30 a.m.
Jeff Davis County has posted its agenda for a Thursday, April 9, special Commissioners Court meeting to discuss whether it should allow contractors to work on Chispa Road, a county road. The agenda item states: “Discuss and take desired action to approve a gift from Barnard Construction to reconstruct Chispa road from FM2017 to the Jeff Davis County and Presidio County Line.” The contractors are intending to make improvements to the road to allow access for heavy equipment building a border wall.
April 4, 2026
10:30 a.m.
Border wall protesters are gathering at the Capitol in Austin today to send a message to Gov. Greg Abbott telling him to put pressure on the federal government to stop the wall. Other protesters are gathering for a “picnic” at Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park.
April 3, 2026
5 p.m.
Big Bend Sentinel’s Sam Karas joined KXAN TV in Austin for a discussion on the latest news and preview of Saturday’s protest rallies.
April 2, 2026
10 a.m.
Presidio and Jeff Davis county commissioners will meet next week (Presidio on April 8 and Jeff Davis on April 9) to discuss the surprise work being done on Chispa Road by border wall contractors. Officials with both counties were blindsided by social media posts Tuesday that showed heavy equipment working on the road—which traverses both counties—and contractors telling people that they were improving the road for 50 mph traffic to the border to facilitate wall construction. That road includes county roads, which are under the control of commissioners courts. (See Contractors begin work on Chispa Rd. to facilitate border wall construction)
The Jeff Davis meeting agenda has not yet been published. One Presidio agenda item states: “Discussion and action to approve a resolution and order establishing a procedure and requirements for permitting special road use of county roads.”
Presidio County Attorney Blair Park said the item would establish a procedure to deal with special uses of county roads, which she is modeling after other counties that have heavy oilfield equipment traffic. However, she noted that in those instances it didn’t involve any changes to the actual roads. Park added that a key question for the contractors will be if they intend to widen the road to a width that would go on to private property, at which point each landowner would have to dedicate that property—which could be an extremely long process.
Presidio County Commissioner Deirdre Hisler added an agenda item that states: “Presentation, discussion with action to approve the use/modification/reconstruction by Federal Contractors on Presidio County Roads.” Hisler said this would be a formal action for commissioners to approve or deny the county road use and construction by contractors, which would require details on what they intend to do. She requested that the primary contractor, Barnard Construction, have its field manager, David Spencer, attend to answer questions.
Hisler said Spencer told her he was given assurances by the Department of Homeland Security that all agreements were in place for the road upgrades, something the commissioner said was impossible since the counties weren’t informed.
Jeff Davis County Commissioner Albert Miller said yesterday that he and County Judge Curtis Evans rode out to the Chispa Road site and asked the contractors to halt their work, which they agreed to do. When contacted this morning, Hisler was on her way to the site to see if the work was still stopped.
April 1, 2026
8 p.m.
Big Bend Sector Border Patrol Chief Lloyd Easterling retired this week. Easterling had recently engaged with local elected officials for discussions on the border wall and broke the news to one official that no steel walls would be built in Big Bend Ranch State Park. (See CBP Chief: State park nixed from plans for steel walls)
In a written statement, a sector spokesperson said: “U.S. Border Patrol Big Bend Sector Chief Patrol Agent Lloyd Easterling retired March 31. This was a planned retirement, and his retirement ceremony was held at sector headquarters in Marfa, Texas. CBP is grateful for Chief Easterling’s faithful service to the nation.”