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Layers of desert mountains stretch across Big Bend National Park in Terlingua, Texas, April 20, 2026. Over the objections of environmentalists, local sheriffs and some state leaders, the Trump administration appears to be moving ahead with border infrastructure in one of Texas’ most beloved parks.

Layers of desert mountains stretch across Big Bend National Park in Terlingua, Texas

By Emily Elconin and J. David Goodman, New York Times

Texans were caught off-guard several months ago when the Trump administration appeared poised to construct a 30-foot wall through Big Bend National Park, a rugged expanse of moonlike desert that is a point of pride for many in the state.

But after bipartisan opposition grew, the wall was removed from the federal government’s border construction map. Many exhaled, believing that the West Texas park, with its towering mountains and cliffs, would be spared.

Then the bulldozers arrived this month.

The sight of the earthmoving machines along the Rio Grande near the Santa Elena Canyon, one of the park’s major attractions, pointed to the most significant evidence of border barrier construction in the park. Contractors ripped through mesquite trees and brush and leveled the ground for more than 1 mile of what appeared to be a future roadway.

Read the full story here.