Al Braden
In West Texas, my home, the Rio Grande is the heartbeat of the Big Bend. Now the Trump Administration and the Department of Homeland Security are mobilizing to build hundreds of miles of border wall through Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, and other sensitive lands.
Imagine visiting Big Bend and not being able to canoe, raft, fish, or hike through the magnificent canyons without navigating bright lights, razor wire, steel walls, and surveillance towers.
For the communities and landowners along the border, constructing more border wall would be devastating. One issue we've heard from West Texans is the impact of the wall on drainage during storms. When the Rio Grande and the arroyos that feed into it flood, silt and other debris get stuck in the wall, causing water to back up and flood local farms and communities.
New border barriers would also deny ranchers and farmers access to the river, depriving their livestock and crops of access to water and creating a no-man's-land that cuts off access to public and private lands.
We've seen what border barriers like walls, buoys, razor wire, and other security infrastructure do to the land, wildlife, and border communities.
Take action: Send a letter in opposition to this disastrous plan.
In Arizona, New Mexico, and the Texas communities of El Paso, Eagle Pass, Laredo, and the Rio Grande Valley, border barriers have cut off migratory routes and water supplies for wolves, ocelots, jaguars, black bear, elk, and many other species that inhabit both sides of the border.
In the Big Bend region, the border wall, which is often illuminated by bright lights, would destroy dark skies and disrupt the nearby McDonald Observatory, which depends on complete darkness at night.
Texans are uniting across party, race, and class against the plans to build the wall through Big Bend.