Trump administration pauses border construction in Big Bend national park

Controversial project has faced bipartisan opposition by critics who say it mars pristine environmental area in Texas

Construction on a US-Mexico border project in Big Bend national park has halted, the Trump administration said Monday, as Customs and Border Protection (CBP) evaluates the controversial project in Texas.

“CBP is pausing all construction activity in Big Bend National Park while I visit and conduct a personal, on-the-ground evaluation,” CBP’s head, Rodney Scott, wrote in a social media post.

Footage of bulldozers ploughing through the 800,000-acre (325,000-hectare) Chihuahuan desert national park emerged earlier this month , after the Trump administration did not announce and initially denied construction on a multibillion-dollar “smart wall” expansion in the park. Last year, Congress approved $46.5bn for a border wall expansion in the “big, beautiful” spending bill Donald Trump signed into law on 4 July 2025.

News of construction in Texas’s largest and most-visited national park sparked concern from environmental groups.

“They’re bulldozing a brand new road through the most beloved stretch of the park,” said Laiken Jordahl, a public lands advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Although many Texas Republicans have remained silent about the construction, outgoing senator John Cornyn sent a letter to Markwayne Mullin, the US homeland security secretary, asking him to halt construction on the wall.

“My constituents believe that the 1,000-foot riverbank cliffs and remote Big Bend terrain offers its own sources of deterrence for any illegal migrants crossing into the United States,” Cornyn wrote.

Scott, the CBP chief, has said that he expects the agency will build the first layer of the wall by the end of next year.

The Associated Press contributed reporting