Border Wall Construction Begins In Texas’s Big Bend Region Amid Fierce Local Opposition

Border wall Big Bend construction has officially begun in west Texas, marking a significant milestone for the Trump administration’s ambitious border security plans in a region that has faced some of the strongest local resistance anywhere along the entire southern border.

Construction Gets Underway In Hudspeth County

Workers have started erecting wall panels in a 47-mile stretch of Hudspeth County known as Big Bend 1, according to a statement Customs and Border Protection provided to the Associated Press. This section represents just one piece of a larger puzzle, the broader Big Bend region encompasses roughly 500 miles stretching from an area south of El Paso down to Lake Amistad, divided into five separate project zones.

CBP confirmed that the first wall panels went up on September 15th. Photos posted to the agency’s construction tracking website showed a crane hoisting one of the massive 30-foot steel panels into position while workers looked on from below.

This particular project stands apart from infrastructure work happening in nearby Big Bend National Park, where the administration has actually paused construction temporarily in an effort to engage with opponents and address some of their concerns before proceeding further.

A Region Known For Resistance

The broader Big Bend area has become something of a flashpoint in the national debate over border wall construction, with CBP facing sustained pushback from an unusually diverse coalition of landowners, environmental organizations, business owners, and ranchers. Many of these opponents argue that this remote stretch of borderland simply doesn’t see the kind of illegal immigration traffic that would justify such extensive construction.

Despite panels now going up in Hudspeth County, activists made clear on Friday that their opposition to wall construction throughout the rest of the region remains firmly intact.

Clara Benson, one of the founders of the No Big Bend Wall Coalition, described in an interview how her organization has been tracking construction activity, including reports of trucks hauling supplies into remote areas along the Rio Grande and contractors clearing land to stage materials for upcoming work.

Speaking from Washington, D.C., where she and fellow coalition members were meeting with lawmakers to press their case, Benson made clear the fight is far from over. She emphasized the coalition’s determination to continue fighting for this land regardless of what happens with current construction, describing conversations with west Texas residents who’ve told her they’ll keep pushing for removal even if wall sections do get built.

Part Of A Much Larger National Push

This Texas construction fits into a massive nationwide effort as the Trump administration accelerates its plan to install a combination of 30-foot steel bollard walls, vehicle barriers, new patrol roads, and surveillance technology along the entire length of the US-Mexico border.

According to Customs and Border Protection, crews are now building barriers at an average pace of 12 miles per week across the roughly 2,000-mile border, and the agency recently hit a milestone of 200 total miles of new barrier construction completed since the current Trump administration took office.

That 12-mile weekly pace actually represents double the rate that CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott had cited earlier this year, highlighting just how significantly construction has accelerated in recent months.

Opposition Extends Far Beyond Big Bend

Resistance to the border wall project isn’t limited to Texas alone. The agency has encountered pushback from environmental organizations concerned about ecological damage, a small town worried that wall construction could worsen local flooding risks, and Native American communities who argue that construction activities are disturbing sites they consider sacred.

Within Texas specifically, much of the organized opposition has centered on protecting Big Bend National Park, a stunning stretch of borderland along the Rio Grande in the state’s southwest corner that draws tourists from around the world. Beyond the park’s boundaries, though, significant portions of land along the river remain in private hands, and many of those landowners have actively resisted government construction efforts on their property.

Earlier this week, a coalition of landowners, ranchers, business owners, and a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the Big Bend region’s natural landscape and cultural heritage filed a lawsuit aimed at halting the administration’s construction plans entirely.

Beyond legal action, opponents have also shown up repeatedly at county government meetings, urging local elected officials to refuse cooperation with contractors hired by CBP to build wall sections. Many individual landowners have taken an even more direct approach, simply refusing to grant government officials or contractors access to survey their property, a form of quiet resistance that has complicated construction planning throughout the region even as work now begins in earnest in Hudspeth County.