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By Billal Rahman and Dan Gooding
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The Trump administration’s border wall project in Texas could require contractors to blast through part of Mariscal Mountain, a towering limestone ridge inside Big Bend National Park, according to federal maps, environmental groups and House Democrats.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) current Smart Wall map places a planned patrol road across the mountain, near Mariscal Canyon and the Rio Grande.
The agency has not published detailed engineering plans saying how the road would be built, but lawmakers and environmental advocates say the rugged route could not be constructed without dynamite and extensive bulldozing.
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CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott, in a new statement to Newsweek, pushed back against claims that the agency is building a traditional border wall through Big Bend National Park, while confirming that road, barrier and surveillance work is planned in the area.
“Big Bend belongs to the American people, and our job is to keep it safe. So, let’s be clear about what is—and is not—happening there,” Scott said.
“CBP is building one new access road, improving existing roads, installing detection technology, and placing vehicle barriers in limited, strategic locations. We are not building a 30-foot wall or stadium lighting through Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, or the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area.
“What people are seeing right now is survey and design work—not construction of a wall through the park. We are working to preserve the landscape and protect the access visitors and local businesses depend on.
“The first step in securing our border is knowing who and what is entering our country. These improvements will help our agents detect illegal crossings, respond faster, and assist visitors in danger. As we strengthen the border across the Southwest, we will not leave Big Bend as an opening for cartels to exploit by shifting their routes and tactics. We are securing this park to protect its legacy—keeping it safe, secure, and pristine so American families can enjoy the beauty of our country, free from fear of cartel activity, for generations to come.”
The project has sparked a bipartisan backlash across Texas, uniting local elected officials, environmental groups, former National Park Service leaders and tourism businesses who argue the planned roads, barriers and surveillance infrastructure would damage sensitive desert habitat, alter remote stretches of Big Bend National Park and threaten an economy heavily dependent on outdoor recreation and tourism.
A Texas border sheriff with direct experience of the area has now questioned whether a road there is needed at all.
Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland told Newsweek: “I’ve hiked the Mariscal Canyon Trail, which is about a 6.5-mile round trip to a canyon with walls reaching roughly 1,500 feet. People simply don’t cross there. Even if they did, they would face approximately a 110-mile walk to reach an area where they could realistically be picked up.”
Cleveland added that he receives information from people looking to cross in the Big Bend region and passes it to authorities.
“I also receive human intelligence through my social media from people looking to cross in the Big Bend region, and I pass that information along to authorities in Big Bend. In my experience, that information is typically reliable,” he said.
“As for Mariscal Canyon specifically, building a road there would be both impractical and unnecessary. The terrain and remoteness make it an unlikely crossing point, and there is little operational justification for constructing a road in such a difficult location.”
The Trump administration has defended the project as part of its border-security strategy, even as illegal crossings along the southern border have plummeted during President Donald Trump's second term.
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Could Construction Require Dynamite?
The Center for Biological Diversity said on August 6 the planned route across Mariscal Mountain would require "extensive dynamite blasting" because of the mountain's rugged terrain.
“This is the most heinous attack on an American national park in generations,” Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a news release. “The administration is preparing to blast hundreds of miles of destructive roads through the wildest place left in Texas and cut off public access to the Rio Grande, all to enrich private contractors."
Newsweek has contacted CBP for comment via email.
A group of House Democrats on July 31 called on the administration to halt work on Mariscal Mountain until it releases detailed road designs, excavation plans and information on how displaced rock would be managed.
“This poses no benefit to border security and would only cause irrevocable damage to the mountain," the lawmakers wrote.
The letter was sent by Reps. Lloyd Doggett, Greg Casar, Jasmine Crockett, Lizzie Fletcher, Vicente Gonzalez, Jared Huffman, Joaquin Castro, Veronica Escobar, Sylvia Garcia and Julie Johnson.
The letter, sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, CBP Commissioner Rodney S. Scott and International Boundary and Water Commission Commissioner W.C. “Chad” McIntosh, asked the administration to disclose whether the project would involve controlled blasting, drilling, vibration monitoring or large-scale excavation. The lawmakers warned that blasting could send rock and debris toward the Rio Grande and potentially trigger review under a 1970 U.S.-Mexico boundary treaty.
“Blasting a road across the mountain could send spoil toward, and potentially into, the Rio Grande,” they wrote.
CBP's Smart Wall plan combines barriers, patrol roads and surveillance technology, including about 205 miles of detection systems in the Big Bend Sector, though the agency says project alignments and mileage remain subject to change as designs are finalized.
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Mariscal Mountain, a nine-mile limestone ridge that rises above the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park, reaches 3,932 feet at its highest point and was once the site of mercury mining operations.
Environmental groups have also raised concerns that construction could disrupt wildlife habitat, damage sensitive desert ecosystems and alter the landscape of one of the country's most remote national parks.
Raymond Skiles, a former Big Bend National Park wildlife biologist who monitored peregrine falcons in the park for nearly two decades, warned that construction across Mariscal Mountain could threaten one of Texas' most important nesting areas for the endangered birds.
In a July Facebook post, Skiles said Mariscal Canyon has hosted as many as three nesting pairs of peregrine falcons annually, which he described as "likely Texas' most densely populated Peregrine nesting area," adding that the birds are highly sensitive to disturbance near their cliffside nesting sites.
Administration Defends Project
DHS and CBP say the Big Bend project is needed to bolster security across the Big Bend Sector, citing more than 89,000 migrant encounters between fiscal years 2021 and 2025, as well as drug seizures and other border-related enforcement activity in the region.
Trump officials have defended the project as a broader border-security initiative extending well beyond the national park.
Unlawful border crossings in the sector have plummeted. CBP data show Border Patrol recorded 148 migrant encounters in the Big Bend Sector in June 2026, down from 412 in June 2023.
During the first nine months of fiscal 2026, authorities recorded 1,509 encounters, compared with 10,291 during the same period in fiscal 2023, an 85 percent decline. The sector encompasses about 517 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border and extends well beyond Big Bend National Park.
What remains unclear is whether the final Mariscal Mountain design will proceed along the route shown on the federal map, whether dynamite will be used, and how excavated rock would be managed. The lawmakers have asked the administration to suspend work there until those questions are answered.
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