Charlie Angell, founder of Angell Expeditions in Redford, Texas, and a landowner with property along the international Rio Grande, told the Washington Examiner that he still does not understand what is being built or where.

“If the objective of [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] is to stem the tide of illegals crossing, well, I already got that covered. Thirteen years, I’ve never had one,” said Angell. “I’ve got a unique situation. It’s my home, it’s my retirement, it’s my backyard, it’s my river access, it’s my river deck, it’s a bird sanctuary, it’s an archeological landmark.”

CBP, the federal agency determining where to build more wall, told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that construction here is slated to begin this month.

“A Smart Wall with 30-foot-high barriers, advanced detection technology, cameras and new and improved roads are planned for the Sierra Blanca, Presidio, Marfa and Van Horn Station areas,” a CBP spokesperson said in a statement. “Border Wall panel installation is anticipated to begin in July in the Marfa and Van Horn Areas.”

“In other areas of Big Bend Sector, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is implementing a border security strategy that leverages advanced technology and the natural terrain barriers,” CBP added. “Cameras, sensors, roads and limited vehicle barriers will be deployed in strategic locations to restrict unlawful vehicle access while utilizing existing natural barriers.”

The forthcoming construction projects have been contested not only by landowners and business owners in the region but also by local law enforcement and Republican officials, who said there was no need for a wall there and that it would alter the beauty of the national park and neighboring state park, as well as private land.

Walling off a desert

The Washington Examiner reported earlier this year that former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem introduced sudden plans to put up a border wall in the Big Bend region.

It’s one of the most remote parts of the country, with a roughly five-hour drive from El Paso or Midway, Texas, to the border in the national park. This region is known by the Border Patrol as the Big Bend Sector, and for years, it has seen the least number of illegal immigrants attempting to cross compared to eight other regions along the U.S.-Mexico border. That is because the terrain not only ranges in elevation by thousands of feet, making it a difficult trek, but it is a three- to four-day walk to the closest highway.

Sources told the Washington Examiner that Noem and her team chose, at a time when she was embroiled in a scandal over spending more than $200 million in federal money on an advertising campaign, to move forward with building a 30-foot-tall border wall in the remote area.

Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland of Terrell County, a former Border Patrol agent, told the Washington Examiner the change followed pushback from community members and leaders in the region, including five sheriffs who pleaded with the Trump administration not to build a wall through the natural landscape.

“We all stood by each other to say, ‘There are better ways to accomplish this,’” Cleveland said.

An aide to a Texas Republican lawmaker, who asked to speak anonymously, said the border wall, a security measure that Republicans have widely supported over the past decade, was now widely opposed by Republican voters in the region.

“Republican, Democrat, and everyone on the ground is very united against it,” the aide said in a phone call. “This is something that’s just part of the culture and community down there. [Big Bend] is a very special place. It’s home to a national park. Big Bend is the crown jewel of Texas. It’s a very special place no one wants to see that come through there … there’s multiple ways to address this issue. The sentiment is clear that … a physical barrier isn’t wanted.”

In the midst of the debate, President Donald Trump removed Noem from her position and brought in then-Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), who was confirmed as secretary in March.

A former Border Patrol official familiar with the agency’s long-standing plans for securing the region even admitted in April that the Big Bend region was a place that’s “never had wall, never had plans for wall,” triggering further questions about why it was suddenly needed.

Waiting for answers

Angell lives directly on the U.S.-Mexico border, with his house 220 feet from the banks of the Rio Grande. He owns 65 acres, including an archeological site with human remains dating back to the 14th century that is on the National Register of Historic Places.

“Their plans they’ve given me are to put a wall right through it,” Angell said in a phone call. “So [I] wouldn’t be able to access the river, [I] wouldn’t be able to go to my deck. There are no crossings here. The whole town of Redford is full of people like me that have land, and they don’t want to lose their river access, but you know the government’s just saying they got to.”

Angell received a notice in the mail asking him to sign over survey rights for the government to survey his land. He can sign the survey permission slip in exchange for $1,000, negotiate a buy-out for the land, or wait until the government attempts to seize the land through eminent domain.

Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, was skeptical that the government wouldn’t harm the historic burial site.

“DHS is preparing to blast canyons & bulldoze roads through thousands of years of human history along the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park—where virtually nobody is crossing,” Jordahl wrote in a post on X. “In Arizona, just a month ago, they destroyed a 1,000-year-old sacred site and faced no consequences.”

More than 130 conservation groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, sent a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to block federal funding for a wall in the upcoming appropriations bill, but CBP and the Army Corps of Engineers have already secured billions of dollars to undertake the massive project.

They are not the only ones. The remoteness of the Big Bend area makes it a less-than-ideal place for smugglers to move migrants across the border, which serves as a deterrent in itself.

In that type of remote area, technology offers a more practical method to detect and track illegal immigrants or drug smugglers through the desert rather than depending only on a barrier to stop all crossings or agents in the field to spot every attempt, according to a former senior CBP official who spoke with the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. Those who get across must walk for days to reach a major highway, unlike urban environments along the border, where someone who gets across can quickly disappear into the city.

CBP drones, cameras, and radar systems are capable of detecting and tracking suspicious activity, and those items should be boosted, rather than a wall, the official said.

Angell said the wall will go directly through his backyard with lights taller than his house and access roads through his property. He is also worried he will not be able to access the river, which is critical given his full-time business as a tour guide, and has even led the late Anthony Bourdain on excursions in Big Bend.

“My neighbor has a hill that looks over the area, and he’s willing to give them an acre of land to put up a surveillance tower. They’re just like, ‘We don’t care,'” Angell said.

Wall plans change

A previous version of an interactive map on CBP’s website showed the wall would run hundreds of miles through the national park, and the surrounding region of the border was updated to show it would instead be secured with “detection technology.” The national park runs along approximately 120 miles of the international border, and a nearby state park runs along 24 miles of the border.

Following outcry from the red state’s residents, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott shared with the Washington Examiner in late April that CBP would not build a border wall inside Big Bend National Park. CBP shifted plans to use technology instead to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border in and around the national park, instead of a 30-foot steel wall to deter illegal immigration.

CBP removed the map from its website. The latest government renderings of border wall plans were posted on CBP’s website on July 1, days after the large construction vehicles began rolling into Big Bend.

“CBP is not planning to construct 30-foot-high barrier in Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, or the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area,” CBP said in a statement. “In locations where minimal barrier may be adjacent to parks, we are actively coordinating with park officials to ensure the alignment does not impede recreational access or activities.”

“Additionally, CBP will use and improve existing public and park roads where possible to provide agents with continued access along the border,” the agency added. “Improvements will include all-weather roads in some areas and paved roads where needed for drainage and erosion control.”

Late last week, Angell said he observed trucks arriving at the job site in late June and, since then, saw four 18-wheelers hauling the steel wall pieces east on the interstate from El Paso, Texas.

The fenced-in space sits beneath nearby mountain peaks and is covered in dirt with hundreds of border wall pieces lined up on the ground, ready to be transported to their final destination.

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CBP added that it recognized the importance of engaging local stakeholders throughout the planning process.

“CBP has been conducting outreach in the Big Bend Sector with the public, local officials, state agencies, and law enforcement. CBP is actively seeking input for the vehicle barrier system project located in Brewster County,” the CBP spokesperson said. “In addition to mailing letters to impacted landowners, state/local elected officials, federal agencies, and tribes, CBP issued a media release to invite the public to participate in the review and comment process, which is open until July 13, 2026.”