Overview
- Local images and video showing bulldozers cutting near Santa Elena Canyon prompted public outrage and confusion over what the government was building inside the park.
- The Department of Homeland Security used broad waivers to speed work that contractors began carrying out in and around the park, bypassing usual environmental and historic‑preservation reviews.
- Customs and Border Protection said it paused in‑park activity for an on‑site review and a San Antonio hearing produced an agreement to stop work at least through Sept. 15 while lawsuits advance.
- CBP officials have denied plans to erect a 30‑foot wall inside the park and say the work planned there is limited to an access road, road improvements, detection systems and vehicle barriers in select spots.
- The pause does not halt a wider, multibillion‑dollar Smart Wall program that funds steel‑bollard walls, patrol roads and surveillance across the Big Bend sector and has drawn lawsuits from tribes, conservation groups and landowners who warn of harm to wildlife, cultural sites and local economies.