Chapter 1: What divided Republicans and Democrats regarding the border wall?
In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, perhaps nothing divided Republicans and Democrats more than the idea of a border wall stretching along America's southern border with Mexico.
I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I'll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.
More than a decade on, those sentiments have now shifted sharply during the second presidency of Donald Trump.
Do Democrats want the wall or do Republicans want the wall? I haven't found either side that wants a wall. So it's a unified consensus. I mean, I would say, best I can tell from people I've talked to, 99.9%. I haven't found anybody yet that wants a wall down here.
That was Starlight Theater restaurant owner Bill Ivey, a three-time Trump voter and Texan through and through. It turns out that nimbyism runs deep in the Big Bend region of Texas, a place where the majestic Rio Grande swirls its way through jagged canyons.
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Chapter 2: What is the current mood in Big Bend about the border wall?
For many here, Republicans and Democrats alike, the idea of a Big Bend border wall is now being met with a resounding, not in my backyard. Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Friday, April 3rd, 2026.
USA Today national news reporter Lauren Villagran traveled to Big Bend, Texas, to listen to the concerns of those who feel threatened by the president's plan to spend billions on a border wall in the region. So good to have you back on The Excerpt, Lauren. Thanks, Dana. Lauren, as I mentioned, you were just there speaking with people in the area.
Chapter 3: Why are local residents opposed to the border wall construction?
What's the mood in Big Bend right now?
Well, Dana, it is fired up is how I would describe it. I don't think I met a single person in four days in the region who didn't have something to say about President Donald Trump's plans to build a border barrier in that region.
Opposition to the construction of the wall has turned into a mission for people like wedding photographer Anna Claire Beasley. Let's listen to some of what she shared with you regarding her concerns about the wall.
What I've said is that there's not a crisis right now, but there will be if this wall is built and if this goes through without them consulting with local law enforcement and taking a really informed approach and listening to local voices. Because yeah, there's just so many what ifs. Are they going to be building roads throughout the park for this detection technology?
What is that dust going to do to our night sky? Which is one of the main reasons that people come here.
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Chapter 4: How did bipartisan opposition to the border wall in Big Bend begin?
I do a lot of astrophotography. That's something couples get so excited about. What happens when that's gone?
Lauren, how did this bipartisan drumbeat of opposition to a border wall in the Big Bend region begin?
So President Trump, upon taking office in 2025, did send indications that he intended to continue border wall construction. Then last year, when he signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, that bill gave more than $45 billion for border barrier construction.
Now, the local Big Bend Sentinel, a local newspaper, began a drumbeat of stories on the contracts being issued and the plans being signed. announced by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. And many people, Dana, told me that at first they didn't really believe that anything was going to happen. Trump, as you know, has been talking about a border wall since at least 2015.
That was one of the big promises of his 2015 campaign. And he did build hundreds of miles of border fencing, though much of it was replacement fencing. In February, the plans became increasingly real as contractors began showing up on the ground and landowners, Dana, began receiving eminent domain notices.
Essentially, the federal government saying, we're going to strike a deal with you to take part of your land or else.
Before her departure, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem launched an official color-coded smart wall. What is that and how is it being used?
Well, Dana, it's not 100% clear. DHS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection has begun using this language, smart wall. I believe it does refer to, you know, the technology that is deployed at the border, everything from hidden in-ground sensors to drones and infrared lighting. But at the end of the day, a physical barrier is still part of it.
Now, what is being considered in the Big Bend sector, which stretches over 517 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, is a variety of physical barrier and border security technologies.
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Chapter 5: What is the significance of the 'smart wall' concept?
It's huge. And they say that that is a natural barrier to illegal crossings. Dana, I looked at the data and The Big Bend sector, which represents one quarter of the U.S.-Mexico border, routinely has the lowest level of crossings. In fiscal 2025, when there were more than 237,000 illegal crossings or migrant apprehensions along the whole border, the Big Bend sector represented just 1%.
Of course, President Trump, as we've noted, has been promising to build a border wall since his first run to be the Republican presidential nominee. We mentioned that it's going to cost billions of dollars, this stretch of the wall. Is this the last stretch of the wall to be built? And is all of that money coming from U.S. taxpayers?
Yes, definitely coming from U.S. taxpayers. Trump's promise that Mexico would pay for it never did pan out. This is not the very last stretch of border fencing to be erected. There are plans all along the border for new fencing in areas that previously had none.
Chapter 6: What environmental concerns are raised by the border wall construction?
For example, there is a mountain in El Paso, Texas, right at the U.S.-Mexico border that is getting additional physical barriers built. The agency is looking at physical barriers in the Rio Grande Valley and in other parts of the border. But locals here say that the Big Bend is one of the largest and last completely untouched landscapes ever.
You know, we were there and there was nothing obstructing the view into Mexico. You know, the mountains that are on the U.S. side of the border stretch deep into Mexico, making approaching the border in most of the sector quite difficult.
You asked restaurant owner Bill Ivey, who, as I mentioned, is a three-time Trump voter, what he would say to the president if he were to visit his restaurant. Let's listen to that.
I'd say, get in the car, let's go look around. That's what I'd tell the president. Come on, let's go look around. I want to show you something. And hopefully Air Force One would fly over and they could look out windows on both sides of that plane and you're going to see nothing but mountains and desolate desert and country that you can't walk through.
The other thing I would say, use your common sense. I mean, this is not a political thing.
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Chapter 7: How does eminent domain affect landowners in Texas?
It's common sense.
Lauren, he said it's not a political thing, but is President Trump at risk of losing support in this part of Texas?
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.
What do critics point to as the potential environmental threats that come with constructing a border wall here?
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.
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Chapter 8: What personal stories illustrate the impact of the border wall on locals?
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.
Imminent Domain, as you mentioned, is on the table here for Donald Trump. Can you briefly explain what that is and how that threat is going over in Texas?
Yeah, so the federal government can't just immediately come on a property. There is a process for that. And landowners in the region that have land along the border, this is Texas and the land is privately owned, need to give permission to the feds to survey the property and ultimately make an offer.
The federal government is supposed to make a fair market value offer, but eminent domain means the federal government does have the right to take the land. I know from locals that the Army Corps of Engineer Landmen are supposed to be in the region reviewing the titles to borderland property.
And I also know that a coalition working in the region is trying to organize landowners, many of whom oppose construction of the wall in their backyard.
Lauren, after spending time in Big Bend, Texas, is there one story that sums up the way Texans feel about the president's plans to build a wall that potentially cuts through Big Bend?
I was personally touched by the story of Denise Carrera. She is a woman from Presidio, Texas, at the border, born and raised. And she left, like many young people do, from this very small town to go to Dallas, where she worked for a decade. But she told me, Dana, that living in the big city, she struggled to see the moon at night and that she had to use an app to try to find the moon.
She had grown up with the darkest night skies and had learned since she was little about the Milky Way and the galaxies and everything. Truly, when you're in Presidio or some of these tiny places in this region, you can't find them at night. There's almost no light. And she told of coming home to Presidio in part to get back to that rural calm.
She has some remote work now that allowed her to do that. And she burst into tears thinking about how she might lose the ability to see the stars at night should the border wall and the construction begin there.
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