Landowners and tourists, nature lovers and hunters, Democrats and Republicans are speaking out against plans to expand the border wall through the Big Bend.
Bride in a foamy white dress. Groom with a ring. A desert landscape with endless canyons against the backdrop of the vast sky.
Think construction noise, bulldozed roads, and a steel border fence in the background, says Texas wedding photographer Anna Claire Beasley.
Bipartisan opposition to the Trump administration’s plan to build a border wall in Big Bend National Park in West Texas is growing, and business owners like Beasley are also voicing concerns. Hunters and outdoor enthusiasts. Local residents and elected officials from both the Republican and Democratic parties.
Beasley, who is based in Telinkua, said she takes couples to the park for “adventure elopements” that reflect the Texan spirit of “charting your own path.” A petition she started on Change.org against the wall garnered about 40,000 signatures in a week.
“We’re seeing people from all political walks of life saying no to the wall,” she said. “We rely on tourism income to make a living and live here. There is a big fear that if construction goes ahead we will have to leave.”
Since launching his first successful presidential campaign in 2015, President Donald Trump has promised to build a “big, beautiful wall” on the southern border. The president installed 137 miles of new border fencing in his first term, according to an analysis by border security researcher Adam Isakson.
Isakson reported that more than 1,100 miles of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border is fenced, with barriers erected across Democratic and Republican administrations. Subdivisions built in remote rural areas rarely cause major public backlash. One reason for this is that the area is sparsely populated and conservative ranchers often support construction.
But although Big Bend is rural and sparsely populated, it is a major draw for tourism in West Texas.
Big game hunters, backpackers, river runners, national park visitors, artists, and musicians all make long journeys to Big Bend National Park in search of the great outdoors, wilderness, and solitude. Justin McFarland, a Texas Hill Country educator who describes his politics as “nonpartisan and common sense,” shoots music videos there and visits annually.
“So many people are investing,” he said. It’s a “primitive wilderness, largely untouched area. Building a wall would cause irreversible damage.”
Republican Texas Rep. Wes Bardell said he has begun hearing from his constituents, including McFarland, that they believe the Big Bend border wall is a “bad idea.” He has heard from business owners concerned about a decline in tourism and property owners who have begun receiving prominent domain notices from the federal government.
Badel, whose 53rd District lies north of the Big Bend region, supports Trump and border security. But he also describes himself as an avid outdoorsman. “It’s a pristine natural area,” he said, adding that wildlife habitat depends on access to the Rio Grande.
“As Republicans, it is also our duty to protect our homeland.” “I want[the Trump administration]to say, ‘Wait a minute, let’s talk some more.’ I hope that cool minds will prevail.”
The sky is dark and there are almost no “illegal entries”
The National Park Service calls Big Bend a place where “coal and rivers carve temple-like canyons in ancient limestone and the night sky is dark.” Locals call it one of the last truly wild places in Texas, where quail, elk, and bighorn sheep roam.
The Trump administration canceled a routine environmental study to assess the impact of fencing in the area.
In a Feb. 17 notice posted in the Federal Register, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem waived 28 separate laws, including the Endangered Species Act and the National Historic Preservation Act, regarding the construction of “physical barriers and roads” within Big Bend National Park.
Noem cited the “urgent and urgent need to construct additional physical barriers and roads” along the border to “prevent illegal entry into the United States” and control drug trafficking.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection told USA TODAY that “new infrastructure and upgrades are planned” throughout the 517-mile stretch of the Border Patrol’s Big Bend Sector, according to an email response to questions.
“CBP has and will continue to coordinate with stakeholders and other federal agencies during the planning and construction process to minimize the impact as possible if the physical barrier is constructed while meeting Border Patrol operational requirements,” the statement said.
The border barrier “project area,” as defined in the Federal Register notice, includes 275 miles along the Rio Grande, including the riverfront of Big Bend Ranch State Park and some of the region’s most popular views, trails and river rafting, according to the Big Bend Sentinel.
The Border Patrol’s vast Big Bend region covers nearly a quarter of the Southwest border but boasts one of the lowest numbers of illegal immigrants. The region’s rugged topography, characterized by mountains and steep valleys, has long been a barrier to migration.
Illegal border crossings across the border have plummeted under the Trump administration. But the number of immigrants in the Big Bend was relatively low even when illegal traffic was high. In 2023, when the El Paso area reported encountering more than 50,000 migrants per month, the Big Bend area reported fewer than 1,500.
In January, Border Patrol arrested 151 immigrants in the Big Bend area.
Lawmakers: ‘…you need to talk to us’
Polly Peters, a retired investment manager, inherited several hundred acres of land in Big Bend after her father’s death. She supports Trump, border security, and a border wall in some areas, but not in the Big Bend.
“You can put cameras in there. The technology is there,” she said. “Let’s try it.”
She is one of the landowners who received a notice from U.S. Customs and Border Protection indicating that the federal government wants to negotiate a price and seize some of her land, or it intends to “initiate eminent land/expropriation proceedings,” according to documents reviewed by USA TODAY.
She describes this land with reverence: “Beautiful mountains that go on forever…beautiful cliffs, streams, and valleys covered with cactus, woodard, and moose everywhere.”
Lawmakers “need to work on that,” she said. “They need to come down and talk to us, the people who live there and make a living.”
Wedding ceremony on “protected land”
Katie Crump and Chase McMillan hired Beasley to photograph their intimate wedding in Big Bend. The Dallas couple had visited the park early in their relationship and wanted to go again.
“It’s my favorite place in Texas,” Crump said. Mr McMillan added: “It touches the soul.”
Beasley helped choose the site along the Hoodoo Balanced Rock Trail in Big Bend. They got married at golden hour and stayed late into the night to photograph their reflections under a stream of stars.
Was there a border wall in the background? Crump says they would not have returned to get married there.
“What makes this area special is that it’s all natural,” she said.
“The important thing is that it’s protected land,” McMillan said. “Maybe the only thing we all agree on is that it’s sacred, right?”
Lauren Villagran covers the border and can be reached at lvillagran@usatoday.com or Signal at laurenvillagran.57.
