The Trump administration has halted bulldozing inside Big Bend National Park after a wave of bipartisan opposition over construction in one of Texas’s most celebrated wilderness areas.
CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott announced the pause Monday, saying he had flown to Texas to conduct a personal evaluation of the terrain. The official said he would meet with local stakeholders and law enforcement before any further work proceeds.
The agency has budgeted $1.72 billion for the project, according to CNN.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the work includes one new road, upgraded existing roads, detection technology and vehicle barriers.
“I just landed in Texas headed to Big Bend National Park,” Scott said in a video posted Monday.
“Last night, I put a pause on all activity in that park as far as construction goes until I can get down there and do a personal evaluation, talk to some stakeholders, talk to local law enforcement in that area, and more to follow this week,” he said.
Bulldozers entered the park on Aug. 6, CNN reported, clearing brush and uprooting trees near Santa Elena Canyon before Scott’s announcement.
Scott had described the agency’s activity to CNN as “survey and design work.”
On X, Scott wrote that the project would involve “one new access road, improving existing roads, installing detection technology, and placing vehicle barriers in limited, strategic locations.”
Bob Krumenaker, who spent five years as Big Bend’s superintendent and now chairs the Keep Big Bend Wild advocacy group, told CNN the entire plan is nothing short of “insane.”
“If they continue with this and build most of the things they have talked about, or even a good fraction of those, this will be the biggest desecration of the national park system — not just Big Bend National Park — since they built a dam in a pristine valley in Yosemite National Park more than 100 years ago,” Krumenaker said.
“This is a story that our children and grandchildren will be telling,” he added. “It’s just a tremendous erosion, if not violation, of the agreement that Texans and the American people made when they established that national park.”
“This is purely political, and it will, it risks destroying one of the nation’s greatest places.”
The park accounts for only about 1% of apprehensions of unauthorized border crossers along the southern border, CNN noted.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin last week urging him to meet with local stakeholders before any further construction proceeds, the Texas Tribune reported.
Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham (R-TX) sent a cease-and-desist letter in July to U.S. Customs and Border Protection after she said a federal contractor worked in Big Bend Ranch State Park without permission, according to CNN.
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