President Donald Trump’s Texas border wall could be left with gaps because of landowner resistance in the Big Bend region as construction advances before the midterms, campaigners opposing the project have told Newsweek. Although construction inside Big Bend National Park is temporarily paused, crews have begun installing wall panels elsewhere in the region. Thirty-foot steel panels are being installed for Big Bend 1, a 47.3-mile project in Hudspeth County.
That work is separate from ground-disturbing activity on the Big Bend 2 and Big Bend 4 projects, which the federal government agreed to pause through September 30 for further public engagement. The No Big Bend Wall Coalition, an advocacy group opposing the expansion of border infrastructure in the area, estimates that hundreds of landowners have properties fronting the Rio Grande where U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is seeking construction access, communications director Clara Bensen told Newsweek by email.
Bensen said that owners who have not granted construction access are creating what she called a "patchwork effect" along the proposed route. "Putting together a significant, contiguous stretch of wall will still be a lengthy process across hundreds of landowners," Bensen said. Land access presents a practical test for an administration that has federal funding, contractors and expedited construction authority, but does not yet have permission to work on every privately owned parcel along the planned route.
A lawsuit filed by Conserve Big Bend and six landowners on September 14 adds a legal challenge. Its plaintiffs dispute the federal finding that the 517-mile Big Bend Sector is an area of "high illegal entry," a determination used to accelerate barrier construction and waive procedural requirements. Coalition members had seen signs of impending construction before the first panels appeared.
Bensen said residents in several counties reported steel bollards being moved toward the border during the previous week. Hudspeth County has the highest proportion of owners who have granted access, according to the No Big Bend Wall Coalition. Others have declined, potentially leaving crews free to build on one property but unable to continue through the next.
Bensen described narrow "ribbon" or strip parcels extending toward the Rio Grande, which she linked to Spanish colonial and Mexican land-allocation systems. More than 200 owners have joined the coalition's property-rights campaign, according to the court complaint as of September 14. Bensen said it would be "unwieldy" for the government to take hundreds of landowners to court to obtain property rights for construction, particularly in a state where private-property rights carry political weight.
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