Lauren Villagran

You know, I don't know how people will vote in the midterms.

Of course, the president is not on the ballot, though it's often believed that voters will punish a sitting president if they don't like the policies in play.

I think people in the area, both Democrats and Republicans, and folks who repeatedly told me they're not very political or not activists at all, are all very motivated around this one issue.

And frankly, they're incredulous that the government would try to spend billions of dollars to build a wall through an area that is considered a tourist gem of Texas.

There is the Big Bend National Park.

But there's also Big Bend Ranch State Park, which is owned and paid for by Texas taxpayers.

And photographer Omar Arnelas and I drove through the parks, and it's clear why this region attracts tens of thousands of people today.

Every year, the really stunning desert vistas and, you know, the Rio Grande runs green and blue in some places.

There's wildlife and camping.

And the towns of Terlingua, between those two parks and the border town of Presidio, really rely on those tourism dollars for their survival.

So the Trump administration has recently walked back its plans to build a physical barrier inside the National Park and inside most of the Ranch State Park.

That being said, folks in the area are still very committed to their anti-wall activism because they worry that bringing in man camps, flood lighting, and construction that would have an upriver around Presidio headed west toward El Paso, Texas,

could fundamentally change the ecosystem in the area, creating flood concerns, as well as interrupting, you know, the flow of wildlife over the border.

The other thing, Dana, is that in terms of tourism, you know, there's all these outfitters in the region, and visitors from all over the country go to take canoe trips and kayak trips down the Rio Grande, and those folks wonder, will they have access to the river?

I can tell you, living in a border city like El Paso, Texas,

Residents here do not have access to the river now.

I mean, there's a number of very conservative people in this region, and they all say that border security is a top priority.

What they would like to see is less invasive border security, things like drones or infrared lighting, you know, additional checkpoints or manpower.

They are not in favor of a physical barrier, and they say the Border Patrol does already have the tools to guard the border without building a 30-foot steel barrier.

Yeah, so the federal government can't just immediately come on a property.