No Big Bend Wall campaign draws unlikely allies
The campaign traces its origin to February, when Walker posted a photo of herself on Instagram holding a pizza-box protest sign with “NO WALL” scrawled beneath it. The post included a call to action: “if you want to organize, DM me.” Five people responded, and within months the group No Big Bend Wall (NBBW) had formed, with Walker and other residents putting their careers on hold.
“I’ve walked away from all of my sources of income,” Walker said. “At first, I wasn’t even eating or sleeping. I didn’t expect my Instagram post to become the foundational block. I felt responsible.”
The proposed wall is part of a broader expansion authorized by Congress through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which gave the Department of Homeland Security $46.5 billion for border barrier construction. In March, the department awarded a $960 million contract to Barnard Construction for work in the region, as MSI previously reported. Residents and experts argue that a wall in the Big Bend — where illegal crossings are infrequent — would cause irreparable damage.
“We live in a desert and they’re building a wall that cuts us off from our river. It makes no sense,” said Clara Bensen, one of the initial five respondents to Walker’s post. She described the group’s emotional trajectory: “First it was shock. Then anger. Now I think we’ve internalized the reality of a long-term fight.”
Media attention has focused on the unlikely bipartisanship of the opposition. “I’ve never worked with so many conservatives,” Bensen said. Border agents, sheriffs, progressive activists and both left- and right-leaning politicians have coalesced around lawsuits, landowner mobilization and a petition delivered to Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz that has gathered more than 150,000 signatures.
Yolanda Alvarado, whose family owns two ranches in the region, serves as NBBW’s landowner coordinator. She said she spends her time explaining residents’ legal rights and options, aided by a legal defense fund developed by the umbrella nonprofit Conserve Big Bend. The wall, if built on her family’s property, would cut one of the ranches in two, isolating the family’s well and ancestral cemetery on the inaccessible side.
“A lot of people say, ‘This is the federal government and they’ll do what they want,’ and I’m like, ‘That’s not how this works,’” Alvarado said. “There’s not going to be a wall.”
The situation is complicated by cooperation from a minority of local landowners. In April, a pecan farmer tried to sell well water to a planned 500-person construction camp. In May, an RV park owner leased space to wall contractors. And the 5,200-acre Moody Bennett Ranch, partly owned by Yeti co-founder Ryan Seiders, has been selling building materials to Barnard Construction and allowing the company to use its land for equipment, according to a report by Marfa Public Radio. Seiders did not respond to requests for comment. A Yeti spokesperson said the company “does not have any involvement or ownership in Moody Bennett Ranch.”
The group has been monitoring construction plans on U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s online map, which has changed repeatedly in response to public pressure, including an April protest at the Texas state capitol. The current version suggests a wall through the region but only surveillance technology and patrol roads within Big Bend National Park. Because CBP has provided little transparency, many residents remain skeptical.
“The American understanding is built off worst-case scenarios and manufactured fear rhetoric; it completely disregards that there are American lives and thriving communities rooted to the border,” Walker said.
MSI previously reported on the administration’s efforts to acquire private land in the region, including through the threat of eminent domain, which has prompted legal challenges and lawsuits from local governments and landowners.
NBBW board member David Keller, an archaeologist and co-owner of a local bar, said the fight is deeply personal. “I’ve pinned my entire life on this place,” Keller said. “So what does it mean to lose it? Some might say, ‘Well, you’re not losing it. They’re just building a wall through it.’ But to me, it’s a total loss. I don’t know if I could stay.”
Anna Claire Beasley, another local at the forefront of the campaign, said she is determined not to give up. “I have family from Presidio that goes way back. As a little girl we’d travel here and I dreamed of living here. It took effort, time and dedication to make the move and I didn’t do all that for nothing. I’m not going to roll over.”