Carrasco, who retired after 26 years in the oil fields, recalled helping his father pick onions and cotton as a teenager on the family ranch, then mounting his horse on weekends to wade across the Rio Grande into Mexico to race horses and drink beers. Today his cows graze on his alfalfa farm near the mountains, but the peace of that scene is shadowed by the letter from border authorities.
“I like what I see,” Carrasco told the Associated Press, sitting under a carport with a beer and staring at the mountains. “I like what I see,” he said. But he does not like what he sees coming.
The letter from U.S. Customs and Border Protection asked Carrasco to allow contractors onto his property to survey it or risk losing the land through eminent domain. Under federal law, the government may take private property for public use, including border barriers, after providing just compensation. Landowners across the Big Bend region have reported receiving similar notices, the Associated Press reported.
The Big Bend stretch of the Rio Grande is largely rural and sparsely populated. Ranches and farms that have been in the same families for generations line the river, and many residents cross into Mexico regularly for family, commerce, and recreation. The administration’s push to build additional border wall segments in the area has renewed tensions over property rights and the government’s power of eminent domain.
Carrasco, who worked 26 years in the oil fields, said he built his life on the land his family has held since he was a child. He remains uncertain about what will happen next. The letter gave no timeline for when survey work or seizure proceedings might begin, leaving him and other landowners in a holding pattern.
The effort is part of a broader Trump administration initiative to expand the border barrier in Texas, including sections in the Big Bend region. Earlier this year, the administration bypassed certain environmental laws to accelerate construction, and the Justice Department sued a Catholic diocese to seize land for a border barrier in another part of the state.