Bulldozers begin clearing ground at Big Bend's Santa Elena Canyon

Republican Sen. John Cornyn asks DHS to pause work for local consultation

Heavy earth-moving equipment was visible Thursday plowing ground at the mouth of Big Bend National Park’s Santa Elena Canyon, a stretch of the Rio Grande flanked by 1,500-foot cliffs, in footage released by photographer Natalie Newman. The footage captured bulldozers clearing dirt and pushing into trees and brush — work that opponents described as the start of construction for a new road and one of four vehicle barriers that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has contracted to build.

CBP initially said the bulldozers were not doing construction work. The agency issued a statement last week asserting the equipment was re-grading roads damaged by heavy rains, according to The Guardian. CBP spokesperson John Mennell later told SF Gate that the bulldozers were turning up ground to assess soil conditions for construction. This week, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said more barriers and roads were needed to keep the park “free from fear of cartel activity” and described the bulldozers as doing prep work rather than construction. “What people are seeing right now is survey and design work – NOT construction of a wall through the park,” Scott said.

Public lands advocates and the park’s former superintendent reject that framing. “It’s just devastating,” said Laiken Jordahl, a public lands advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. “They’re bulldozing a brand new road through the most beloved stretch of the park.” Bob Krumenaker, who leads the advocacy group Keep Big Bend Wild after serving as Big Bend’s superintendent, said the agency is withholding the complete plan. “They are obscuring what they are doing,” Krumenaker said. “They refuse to tell people what the complete plan is.”

Big Bend National Park covers about 800,000 acres of Chihuahuan desert and is bordered by the Rio Grande. Earlier this year, CBP signaled plans for a 30-foot steel bollard wall across an area naturally obstructed by steep cliffs; after public backlash, the agency scaled back to a more limited proposal of roughly 200 miles of new patrol roads and four sections of non-contiguous 6-foot vehicle barriers totaling 17 miles, according to The Guardian. The Department of Homeland Security waived dozens of federal environmental and cultural protection laws to expedite construction. The funding traces to the $46.5 billion Congress included for border-wall expansion in the “big, beautiful” spending bill that President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4, 2025.

Immigration authorities made between 100 and 125 arrests annually within the park’s boundaries in 2023 and 2024, according to Krumenaker. Those numbers almost certainly fell last year, he said, after the Trump administration ramped up immigration enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border following Trump’s return to office in January 2025.

Local opposition has crossed party lines, though two of the state’s highest-profile Republicans have stayed quiet. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, said in March that rugged regions like Big Bend present “great opportunities to deploy technology to aid in securing the border” but has declined to comment on the construction plans, according to The Guardian. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat, has not commented, the paper reported. Outgoing U.S. Sen. John Cornyn wrote to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin last week asking him to halt construction so local leaders and residents could be heard.

Southwest Valley Contractors of New Mexico secured a $1.7 billion contract in May for border-security infrastructure in the area that includes the park, according to The Guardian. The Friends of the Ruidosa Church, river guide Billy Miller, and the Center for Biological Diversity are suing DHS, alleging that waiving dozens of federal laws to expedite construction violated due process and other constitutional rights. DHS agreed in June to provide at least 30 days’ notice before “commencement of any ground disturbing activities in Big Bend Ranch State Park or Big Bend National Park,” according to the lawsuit.

Jordahl said the agency retains the funding and contractual authority to build a full wall through the park. “They issued this contract back when they were still planning to build a wall,” Jordahl said. “They have the money they need to build a whole border wall through the national park.” A rally was held at Santa Elena Canyon on August 12. Big Bend National Park’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.