CBP pauses bulldozers in Big Bend National Park

A bulldozer plows through land during construction for a section of border barrier near Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park, Texas. — A bulldozer plows through land during construction for a section of border barrier near Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park, Texas

(Image credit: Brandon Bell / Getty Images)

What happened

The Trump administration on Monday said it was temporarily halting construction on a contentious border project in Texas’ Big Bend National Park. In a video on social media, Customs and Border Protection chief Rodney Scott said he had “put a pause on all activity in that park, as far as construction goes, until I can get down there” to West Texas to “do a personal evaluation” and “talk to some stakeholders.”

Scott’s announcement “comes amid massive outcry from local residents, businesses and law enforcement officials,” The Texas Tribune said, and “bipartisan frustration” over CBP’s shifting accounts of its plans for the treasured national park. CBP earlier this year “backed off plans to build a 30-foot-tall bollard wall” through Big Bend, The Associated Press said. But it is “still moving forward with other border protection measures such as a new road, lights” and vehicle barriers.

The deployment of bulldozers last week drew “national attention and bipartisan criticism” from across Texas over the project’s “speed” and “seeming disregard for a prized piece of untrammeled wilderness,” The New York Times said. Local sheriffs argue the project is “costly and unnecessary in a desolate and undeveloped area where few migrants have ever crossed.” The CBP’s Big Bend Sector “covers a quarter of the U.S.-Mexico border,” CNN said, but “sees only about 1% of border apprehensions.”