Construction work in Big Bend National Park has been temporarily halted, U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner Rodney Scott said Monday, while he assesses the southwest Texas site.
Scott said CBP will pause its projects in the national park as he conducts a "personal, on-the-ground evaluation." His agency had earlier awarded contracts for construction in the Big Bend area that sparked concerns the administration was building a wall that could damage the environment.
Construction equipment and crews at Big Bend were there for survey and design work to help preserve the landscape, he said last week. The work wasn't related to building a border wall, he said.
CBP activity along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas has generated bipartisan criticism from elected officials who say construction could cause floods, threaten the area's tourism industry and damage historic Native American sites.
The Trump administration has filed eminent domain lawsuits against some Texas landowners in an effort to seize private land as part of Trump's promise to build a border wall. The administration has made limited progress, although Congress allocated $46 billion in taxpayer funds for the wall last year.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) urged the federal government last week to meet with locals before resuming construction.
"My constituents believe that the 1,000-foot riverbank cliffs and remote Big Bend terrain offers its own source of deterrence for any illegal migrants crossing into the United States," he said in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security.
CBP is building a new access road at Big Bend, improving existing roads, installing detection technology and placing vehicle barriers in strategic locations, Scott said last week. The agency awarded several contracts this year to companies to build a wall along a 165-mile stretch in the Big Bend area.
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