1. United States
2. Letter

Thank you for pausing construction inside Big Bend National Park. Please make that decision permanent and stop unnecessary wall construction throughout the greater Big Bend region. This is not opposition to border security. Texans support effective security, but Big Bend’s mountains, canyons and desert already form a formidable natural barrier. Security can be strengthened with well-trained Border Patrol agents, drones, sensors and other targeted technology without destroying an American national treasure. The proposed patrol road across Mariscal Mountain shows how irrational this project has become. It would connect the Talley and Solis river-access roads across terrain currently traversable mainly by experienced backcountry hikers. Bulldozing a graded road through that natural barrier could make the area easier—not harder—for migrants to cross. The project also threatens hundreds of Texas landowners with federal access demands, acquisition and eminent domain. These are ranchers, families with land held for generations, river guides and small-business owners. The federal government should not seize Texans’ private property for a wall that local residents, sheriffs and border experts say does not fit this terrain. This project is expensive, destructive and deeply unpopular across political lines. It benefits federal contractors while leaving Texans to lose land, river access, businesses and an irreplaceable landscape. That is not America First, and it is not respect for private-property rights. You have the authority to stop a wasteful bureaucracy from destroying Big Bend and taking Texans’ land. Please cancel the contracts, stop the barriers, lights and unnecessary roads, restore the areas already damaged, and redirect resources toward security measures that actually work. Protecting Big Bend while securing the border intelligently would be a lasting achievement. Please listen to Texans and end this project permanently.