Trump's Border Wall Hits Big Bend: Land Seizures, Tribal Clashes and a Judge's Pause Through September 30

In Presidio County, Texas, Yolanda Alvarado's family has lived on land near the U.S.-Mexico border since before Texas was a state. This year, according to MS NOW, construction crews and dynamite blasts showed up on her rural road with no warning. "No announcement. No signs. There's been zero communication," Alvarado told the outlet.

The crews belong to Barnard Construction, a Montana firm owned by Tim Barnard that has won more than $5.6 billion in border wall contracts under President Trump's second term, according to MS NOW's reporting. The work is part of the administration's push to finish an end-to-end 30-foot wall along the southern border, a project Trump has framed since 2015 as necessary to stop dangerous migrants.

Alvarado is not alone. MS NOW reports at least 200 border landowners have received letters informing them the federal government intends to access or seize part of their property through eminent domain, the legal process for converting private land to public use.

A federal pause, and a no-show

Construction has run into legal roadblocks. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order pausing wall work across roughly 600 miles of border, according to Axios, but that order only runs through the end of September. The lawsuit was filed by the People of La Junta Preservation and Far Flung Outdoor Center. It led Customs and Border Protection to agree on September 2 to pause two specific segments, BBT-2 and BBT-4, which run through Big Bend Ranch State Park and Big Bend National Park, according to the Big Bend Sentinel.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was scheduled to meet with Big Bend-area county judges to discuss the wall projects, Presidio County Judge Joe Portillo announced, but the Big Bend Sentinel reported Noem never showed up.

Axios reported that a Trump administration envoy identified only as Scott told local officials at a private meeting that wall construction along a more than 200-mile stretch from Hudspeth to Presidio County was "not negotiable," without giving a reason, according to Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson, who attended. Dodson also said Scott acknowledged the federal government had failed to communicate its plans transparently.

A CBP spokesperson told Axios the agency is "evaluating technology options to meet President Trump's mission of zero illegal border crossings while strengthening the most secure border in American history in highly remote and hard-to-access areas." That is the government's stated justification for building in stretches where locals, per Axios and MS NOW, say crossings are rare and construction risks damaging protected park land.

Not everyone is opposed

The picture is not uniformly hostile. In Eagle Pass, the Texas Military Department is building a new fence section south of the city on land belonging to the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, in partnership with the tribe, Breitbart reported. That stands in contrast to the situation roughly 300 miles west, where the Tohono O'odham Nation alleges armed, masked CBP agents escorted wall contractors through its reservation on a Tuesday in violation of tribal law, according to Breitbart. That allegation has not been confirmed by CBP or adjudicated, and no charges or findings have been announced.

In drought-stricken New Mexico, contractors drilling water wells to produce concrete paused the work voluntarily after ranchers raised concerns the wells could threaten their future water supply, Breitbart reported.

Meanwhile, CBP opened public comment on an 86-mile barrier study in the Rio Grande Valley but has already disclosed it will not proceed with construction or new land acquisition once that study concludes, according to Breitbart's reporting on the agency's own announcement.

The political fallout lands on Abbott, not Trump

Despite the contracts and the bulldozers, CBP had built less than 200 miles of wall as of last week, Axios reported, a fraction of the "end-to-end" barrier Trump has promised.

MS NOW found that even conservative residents in Big Bend are directing their anger at Texas Republicans rather than Trump himself, since Trump is not on the November ballot. Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, has joined Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in opposing the border security expansion specifically within Big Bend National Park, according to Breitbart, an unusual cross-party alignment on this particular stretch of wall.

Gov. Greg Abbott, addressing the Republican National Committee's midterm convention in Dallas on September 10, defended his record, telling the crowd "no president has done more than Donald Trump to secure our border" and that Texas has "the toughest laws on immigration of anybody in any state," according to the Daily Signal. Abbott faces Democrat Gina Hinojosa in the governor's race, with Election Day set for November 3, 2026.

Whether that record includes the eminent domain fights and tribal disputes playing out in Big Bend is a question Abbott did not address in his convention remarks. The federal court's pause on construction expires September 30, and it remains unclear whether Secretary Noem will reschedule her meeting with the county judges who were left waiting.