CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott stopped work on an access road, detection technology and vehicle barriers on Monday, Aug. 17, along the park's 118 miles of the Rio Grande.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott announced Monday, Aug. 17, that work inside Big Bend National Park would temporarily stop while he visits the site. The halted work includes an access road, detection technology and vehicle barriers. The pause followed complaints from Republicans and Democrats.
Why a barrier at Big Bend is harder to build than one at El Paso:
- A 1970 boundary treaty with Mexico bars structures that would shove the Rio Grande's flow across the line, which is why Texas barriers usually sit set back inland rather than on the bank.
- The park's run of the Rio Grande has been a federally protected Wild and Scenic River since 1978, a status written to block projects that alter the riverway.
- Big Bend covers 801,163 acres — bigger than Rhode Island — and most of that is roadless desert and mountain, so building anything means building a road to it first.