Scott says protecting the country with a barrier is non-negotiable
US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott defended the Trump administration’s $46 billion border-wall plan in an exclusive Associated Press interview on Thursday despite a court-ordered pause on construction in Big Bend, Texas. Scott said the government needed to know who and what was entering the United States and called fortifying the border “non-negotiable.”
Rodney Scott, a former border patrol agent whom Trump tapped to complete the border barrier, said, “Our number one goal right out the gate is we have to know who and what is coming into the United States.” He called his goal of fortifying the country’s borders “non-negotiable.”
Scott argued that Big Bend needs a wall or other border infrastructure if nearby areas receive fortifications. If the region were left without them, he said, “I am 100% convinced it will be completely overrun and destroyed.” Big Bend lies close to the US-Mexico line, where the Rio Grande follows a massive curve on its way to the Gulf of Mexico.
CBP is executing a plan funded last summer by Republicans in Congress to line the roughly 2,000-mile (3,200km) border with Mexico with a mixture of steel fences 30ft (9 metre) high, vehicle barriers, new roads and surveillance technology to prevent irregular immigration and the smuggling of drugs and humans. Some areas are also slated to receive a secondary layer of fencing.
The Trump administration says it is building about 12 miles (19km) of border wall a week. Scott said he receives daily progress updates and that the primary wall would be finished by the end of December 2027, with the broader project due to be complete by the end of Trump’s second term. “We’re actually ahead of schedule,” Scott said.
The wider wall plan has run into stiff and bipartisan resistance in some places, especially Big Bend. Opposition to the Big Bend project has crossed party lines. A bipartisan coalition of landowners, local businesses and environmentalists argues that the wall is a waste of taxpayer money and could damage a region with historically low migrant crossings. The Guardian wrote that the fight over Big Bend “has become a major test for how far the Republican administration is willing to go to shut off the border.”
Earlier this month, a judge ordered a pause on border-wall construction in the Big Bend region, citing what could be a likelihood that plaintiffs “will suffer serious, irreparable harm without an injunction.” The ruling included any construction in Big Bend National Park, an area that has drawn a loud bipartisan outcry, including from some Republican lawmakers. The administration has asked the Supreme Court to lift the order.
Construction had already drawn attention in August, when bulldozers were spotted tearing up ground in the park. Scott ordered CBP to pause all construction-related activity there while he spoke with people in the region. The agency has also reached out to local residents to discuss how projects could be built without marring the park. “We’re talking through and figuring out what is the right solution for that area,” Scott said.
Scott said the huge steel fences would not go up in Big Bend National Park because of ongoing lawsuits, while maintaining that protecting the country with a barrier was non-negotiable. He said CBP was still talking through what it considered the right solution for the area.
Local opposition was visible in Study Butte, Texas, where demonstrators held signs during a weekly protest against border barriers on September 26, 2026. A photograph by John Locher of the Associated Press documented the protest. The judge’s construction pause applies specifically to the Big Bend region, including Big Bend National Park.
The sequence of pauses began with CBP halting construction in Big Bend National Park for Scott’s on-the-ground evaluation and the federal government extending that pause through mid-September. The later court order and Scott’s defense advance the same unresolved dispute over the project.