The Trump administration has begun erecting 30-foot wall panels along a stretch of southwest Texas’s Big Bend region, pressing forward over objections from local leaders and residents.
Customs and Border Protection confirmed to the Associated Press that installation was already underway, with the agency posting a photo showing a crane lifting one of the panels into place.
The agency said the first panels were erected on September 15 in a 47-mile stretch of Hudspeth County in west Texas, an area designated as Big Bend 1.
CBP described the Big Bend region as encompassing roughly 500 miles, stretching from an area of Hudspeth County south of El Paso all the way to Lake Amistad, divided into five separate project areas.
The construction represents a significant milestone in the administration’s $46 billion plan to line the border with walls, barriers, roads, and technology.
The sweeping investment is central to President Donald Trump’s long-standing campaign promise to complete a full wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Big Bend sits along the bend of the Rio Grande and is recognized for its mountain range, river canyons, and desert landscape, as well as its nationally protected park of the same name.
CBP clarified that it does not plan to construct a wall in “Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, or the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area.”
The administration has separately suspended a border infrastructure project inside Big Bend National Park, characterizing the pause as an effort to reach out to opponents of the broader construction program.
Despite that partial concession, community members remain deeply concerned that the wall projects will infringe on landowners’ rights and diminish the national park’s appeal, ultimately harming the regional economy.
Clara Benson, the founder of the No Big Bend Wall Coalition, told the AP she had received reports of construction supplies moving into the regions, adding her group would “continue to fight for this land no matter what the outcome is.”
Opposition voices show no sign of softening as construction crews continue to move equipment and materials into the remote and ecologically sensitive border zone.
