Trump admin halts construction of Big Bend border wall

Trump's US-Mexico border wall is on pause in the Big Bend National Park area of Texas. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott announced the pause this week, saying "CBP is pausing all construction activity in Big Bend National Park while I visit and conduct a personal, on-the-ground evaluation.

"CBP is firmly committed to protecting America," Scott continued, "and that includes our national treasures like Big Bend National Park (BBNP). We know the current and predictable national security threats and they are real. Now over the next couple of days, I will join a small team to evaluate the terrain and listen to local leadership, community members and stakeholders to ensure that we secure our borders while simultaneously protecting BBNP for generations to come."

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham sent a cease and desist letter to US Customs and Border Protection last month, saying that the administration was clearing ranch land without the General Land Office's say-so. Buckingham has spoken out against "a physical barrier in the Big Bend region," the Houston Chronicle reports, and is an advocate for Trump. She is currently up for reelection.

A bipartisan letter was also sent to Texas Governor Greg Abbott to encourage Trump to stop the construction project. Local elected leaders signed onto the letter and Texas GOP Senator John Cornyn sent his own letter weighing in, urging the construction to stop.

This comes as the Trump administration has not given up the fight to put a strong, physical barrier along the length of the US-Mexico border, which spans from Texas across New Mexico, Arizona and into California. At issue for Buckingham are the ranches in the area, which could be cut off from the river should the project go forward to completion. Other critics cite environmental concerns.

Locals have applauded efforts to block the project and to retain river access for affected ranches. Buckingham also told the Montana firm that's in the process of clearing and building to restore the land to its state before the work began.

Officials in the Big Bend area have said that they do not believe a border wall is necessary for the 118-mile stretch of land that borders the Mexican states of Coahuila and Chihuahua. The area, they say, is desolate and undeveloped and has not historically seen many illegal border crossers crossing into the US. 

The Trump administration had been planning a 30-foot wall but is now instead building "a new access road along the border, installing detection technology and erecting vehicle barriers," The New York Times reports. Critics of even these border protection plans, such as the Center for Biological Diversity's Laiken Jordahl, say the damage already done is "irreversible." His group has brought a lawsuit to stop the border work.

The 4 years of the Biden administration saw a drastic increase in both legal and illegal crossings, with estimates saying that between 10 and 20 million people crossed into the US both illegally and under a variety of semi-legal programs put in place by the Biden administration to do just that. Illegal border crossings have fallen to near zero under Trump, who ran on a platform of halting illegal migration.