RUIDOSA, Texas — Ranchers and landowners in Texas’ Big Bend region are pushing back hard against the federal border wall, and a judge has paused construction there, the Associated Press reported.
The administration is moving ahead with a $46 billion wall project after Congress approved the money last year as part of an immigration enforcement package. In Big Bend, where work started in September, it plans to spend $7.5 billion along more than 500 miles of border, according to the AP.
“Landowner resistance has slowed this project to a crawl,” said David Keller, a landowner suing to stop the plans.
Unlike much of the border in other states, most land in Texas is privately or state owned. The government needs owners’ permission to survey and build, and if they refuse it can go to court to take land through eminent domain.
Opponents point to the region’s rugged natural barriers and low crossings. In August, the Border Patrol arrested 161 people in Big Bend, which makes up about a quarter of the border, out of 8,870 along the entire southern border, the AP reported.
“The American people have already seen the consequences of an unprotected border,” CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said. “We cannot allow any region — including Big Bend — to be exploited again.”
CBP says it is building about 12 miles of barrier a week and has finished more than 200 miles of new wall in the current administration.
Arizona has seen similar fights, including protests over wall construction near Lochiel.
Sources: KTAR News/AP. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Yinan Chen / Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
