Bulldozers and heavy construction equipment have arrived in and around Big Bend National Park in Texas, amid a battle over the Trump administration's plans to expand the president's border wall across one of the country's most remote national parks. Social media videos by conservation groups and local activists show contractors clearing vegetation near the Rio Grande amid federal plans for a multibillion-dollar border security project that includes vehicle barriers, surveillance systems and extensive patrol-road construction.

The work has faced bipartisan backlash in Congress, and opposition from environmental groups, former National Park Service leaders and local tourism businesses, who say the project could damage desert ecosystems. The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection say the infrastructure is necessary, citing more than 89,000 migrant encounters in the Big Bend Sector between fiscal years 2021 and 2025, as well as drug seizures.

“This is the most heinous attack on an American national park in generations,” said Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. Latest CBP data show Border Patrol recorded 148 encounters in the sector in June 2026, down from 412 in June 2023. During the first nine months of fiscal 2026, authorities recorded 1,509 encounters, down from 10,291 in the same period of fiscal 2023, a decline of about 85 percent. This is a developing story.