Border wall through Big Bend state park in “planning stages” as updated map includes 2-mile barrier
By Ayden Runnels, The Texas Tribune
July 2, 2026
A new update to U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s plans for a border wall indicates that 30-foot wall segments will be built in two parts of Big Bend Ranch State Park, the latest in a series of mixed messaging about construction in the region.
Wall segments are currently planned to be built through about 2 miles of the state park’s westernmost sections that run close to the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the CBP “Smart Wall Map,” which displays wall construction plans nationally. The map has frequently been updated to add and remove border wall plans in Big Bend for months, and at times has been removed from the CBP website altogether.
Bloomberg, which first reported on the updated map Thursday, wrote that CBP confirmed wall construction in the region including the state park would begin in September.
In a statement to The Texas Tribune on Thursday afternoon, a CBP spokesperson said that while there are “priorities for new border wall and detection technology” in and near the state and national parks, they are still in the planning stages as the agency focuses on “higher priority locations.”
“CBP continues to develop and finalize its plan for border barrier construction funded by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, with a focus on the top operational priorities with historical rates of high illegal entry where illegal aliens regularly attempt to enter the United States,” the statement said.
The Big Bend Sector is the least busy of Border Patrol’s nine sectors, as the region accounts for about 1.3% of the more than 237,000 apprehensions across the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2025. Still, Trump administration officials, including former and current Department of Homeland Security Secretaries Kristi Noem and Markwayne Mullin, have described the region as an area with “high illegal entry.”
The updated map showing wall construction plans through the state park is the latest of continuously mixed messaging from Trump administration officials on the extent of construction in the region.
CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott had said in a May interview with the Washington Examiner that plans for constructing a wall in the state park or nearby national park had been called off in favor of other monitoring technology. A week after those comments, a $1.7 billion contract was awarded “for border wall in Big Bend.”
A CBP spokesperson denied the $1.7 billion contract would be used to build a wall in either of the region’s two parks or the nearby Black Gap Wildlife Management Area.
A $2.6 billion contract was also awarded in early June for “border barrier design build” in Terlingua, a small town a few miles west of Big Bend National Park.
Amid the mixed messaging, the Trump administration has been moving to clear the way for wall construction in Big Bend. The administration has waived environmental protections for construction, and CBP has sent letters to an estimated 400 landowners in the region asking to let contractors survey their land or risk losing it through eminent domain.
Opposition to a wall in the region, especially in the parks, has been vocal and bipartisan, but has so far been met with little success, including In June when a proposal to ban construction in the region failed to pass a congressional funding panel.
Several advocacy organizations and Presidio County have sued the Trump administration over the wall, arguing in two separate lawsuits that construction would have detrimental environmental impacts and increase flooding risks.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.