The Department of Homeland Security’s border agency chief said Monday that he is pausing all border wall construction in Big Bend National Park in Texas and that he will personally visit the site to figure out next steps.
Rodney Scott, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, made the move amid growing criticism of his wall-building plans in the area.
He called Big Bend a national treasure, but said there are also real national security threats he must address.
“Now over the next couple of days, I will join a small team to evaluate the terrain and listen to local leadership, community members and stakeholders to ensure that we secure our borders while simultaneously protecting BBNP for generations to come,” he wrote on social media.
“More to follow this week,” he said in a video.
Work began earlier this month, jarring local residents who felt the area was largely immune to illegal immigration and so the value of a barrier was outweighed by the environmental and tourism implications.
Mr. Scott tried to quell discontent last week, saying the barrier through the park would be “limited” and wouldn’t be the tallest 30-foot model of the wall used in some other locations.
It did little to calm the furor.
“Nobody has explained why patrol roads and road barriers through this remote jewel of Texas make anyone safer. River guides, ranchers and small towns across the Big Bend region stand to lose their livelihoods over a project CBP still won’t fully explain. It’s absolutely unprecedented,” said Clara Bensen, director of communications for No Big Bend Wall.
The Big Bend halt is a rare black eye for the administration’s wall-building efforts.
The map on CBP’s web page dedicated to wall progress shows most of the 1,954-mile border with either an existing wall already built or in planning, marked in red.
Big Bend stands out as an exception. For the eastern part of the park, after the bend in the boundary line that gives the park its name, the wall is set miles back from the actual border.
Locals have highlighted some of the problems they see with the planned wall route.
A beaver pond in the path of the wall has become a symbol of the resistance.
The issue is quickly popping up in political campaigns in the state, with Democrats seizing on the backlash to wall construction.
President Trump won tens of billions of dollars for construction in last year’s budget law, quietly securing funding to fulfill the marquee pledge left incomplete by his first administration.
Between the Defense Department and CBP, the current Trump administration says it’s erected 171 new miles of fencing or water barriers, and has a staggering 972 miles under construction.
Hundreds more miles are in the planning stage.
Wall opponents had sued to try to stop construction in Big Bend but lost an early round of the fight when a judge said the challenge was premature.
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