Border Wall Panel Installation in West Texas 'Is Underway'

The government of President Donald Trump has begun constructing the border wall across a stretch of West Texas in the Big Bend region, marking the first major project in an area of the U.S.-Mexico border where government plans have faced strong opposition. The start of construction represents a significant milestone in the government's $46 billion plan to cover the border with walls, barriers, roads, and technology, as it seeks to fulfill a key promise made by Trump during his campaign. This comes as the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency claims it has doubled the pace at which it builds the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The CBP stated in a release to The Associated Press that 'the installation of border wall panels is underway' in a 47-mile stretch of Hudspeth County, Texas, known as Big Bend 1. In total, there are five project areas that make up the Big Bend region, approximately 500 miles long, extending from an area in Hudspeth County south of El Paso to Lake Amistad. The agency did not specify when the panels were installed. A map on the agency's website, which provides updates on wall construction along the southern border, shows a crane lifting one of the 30-foot-tall steel wall panels into place as construction workers looked on. This new activity is separate from a border infrastructure project in nearby Big Bend National Park, where the government has temporarily halted construction in an attempt to reach out to opponents. Throughout the Big Bend region in Texas, the CBP has encountered coordinated opposition from landowners, environmental groups, business owners, and ranchers, who argue that the remote area is not a high-traffic zone for illegal immigration. Several activists stated on Friday that they would continue to oppose border infrastructure projects throughout the rest of the Big Bend region, even as the panels were being installed. Clara Benson, one of the founders of the No Big Bend Wall coalition fighting against the CBP's plans, commented in an interview on Friday that the organization had received reports of trucks transporting supplies to the remote area along the Rio Grande, known in Spanish as the Río Bravo, and that contractors had cleared yards to store materials. However, speaking from Washington, D.C., where she and other coalition members were meeting with lawmakers, she expressed that the organization and others would continue to fight the wall construction plans throughout the region. 'We will keep fighting for this land no matter what the outcome is. We will fight until the end,' Benson stated. 'You talk to people in West Texas, and they say that even if they build it, we will fight to have it torn down. So this fight is not over.' The news comes as the government accelerates a plan to cover the entire border with a combination of 30-foot-tall steel bollard walls, barriers designed to prevent vehicles from crossing the border, new patrol roads, and various technologies to deter and detect migrants or smugglers attempting to cross. The CBP indicated that it is constructing an average of 12 miles of barriers per week along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico and recently reached the milestone of 200 miles of new barriers built since Trump took office for a second time. The average of 12 miles per week doubles the pace that the agency's chief, Rodney Scott, mentioned earlier this year. The agency has faced opposition from environmental groups, a small town that fears the wall will cause flooding in its area, Indigenous people who claim the construction affects sacred sites, and landowners who assert that the project will invade their properties. In Texas, much of the opposition has focused on the agency's plans for Big Bend National Park, in the southwest of the state along the Rio Grande, which attracts tourists from around the world. But upstream and downstream outside the park, much of the land belongs to private owners, many of whom have rejected the government's efforts. Earlier this week, landowners, ranchers, and business owners from the Big Bend region, along with a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the landscape and heritage of the area, filed a lawsuit to halt the government's plans. Activists and landowners have also attended county meetings to pressure their elected officials not to cooperate with contractors hired by the CBP to build the wall, and many landowners have refused to allow government officials or contractors onto their properties to conduct studies.