1. United States
2. Letter

You speak often about loving America, protecting heritage, preserving beauty, and defending what belongs to the American people. That is why I am asking you to reconsider continued border wall expansion and the broader expansion of border infrastructure across Texas. Because if you truly understand Texas, then you understand this: Texas is not just a place on a map. Texas is land. Our identity has always been tied to land—our rivers, our ranches, our open spaces, our public lands, our private property, our wild country, our skies, and the feeling that there is still something beautiful left that belongs to us and has not been paved over, fenced off, or turned into infrastructure. Texans tell stories about land. We celebrate people who worked it, protected it, crossed it, explored it, raised families on it, fought for it, and passed it down. We teach our children that you leave the land better than you found it. That is part of the Texas mythos. Freedom has always meant more than government. It has meant space. It has meant rivers. It has meant horizons. It has meant being able to stand somewhere beautiful and know it will still be there tomorrow. And that is why so many Texans—left, right, and everywhere in between—look at what is happening along the border and do not see protection. We see destruction. Not just a wall. Roads. Clearing. Lighting. Surveillance infrastructure. Barriers. Restricted access. Industrial development spreading across some of the most beautiful and ecologically important land in our state. Places that were wild become managed. Places that were dark become lit. Places that were connected become fragmented. Places that were beautiful become permanent construction zones. The Rio Grande is not an empty line on a map. It is one of the defining landscapes of Texas. The borderlands are not vacant space waiting to be improved. They already have value because they are beautiful. These ecosystems are fragile and irreplaceable. Wildlife corridors are broken apart. Species already under pressure are pushed closer to extinction. Night-flying animals lose the darkness they depend on. Damage like this cannot simply be rebuilt later. But for Texans, this is bigger than science. It is about inheritance. Our public lands belong to Texans. Private property belongs to Texans. Our wild lands belong to Texans. Our river belongs to Texans. And when these places are transformed beyond recognition, what is being lost is not empty space—it is part of our heritage and part of the story Texans tell about ourselves. You say you want to protect America. Then protect one of the most beautiful parts of America. Protect Texas not only as a border, but as a place. Protect what Texans actually hold precious. Do not take away the things that make Texas Texas.