Big Bend border security: $1.7B project to bring 200+ miles of roads, cameras, and more

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The Rio Grande flows through the Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park on January 27, 2023 in West, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

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TERILINGUA, Texas - After the story broke last week of $1.7 billion being awarded for border security efforts in the Big Bend region despite "no wall" in the works, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has explained the details of their plans. 

The immigration suppression efforts in the park will include over 200 miles of patrol roads, camera and sensor surveillance, and smaller barriers, the CBP confirmed Tuesday. 

Big Bend border security

What's new:

FOX Local requested information on the planned project Friday evening, and heard back from a CBP spokesperson Tuesday afternoon. They clarified that the $1,720,040,000 was awarded in order to build about 17 miles of vehicle barrier system and about 205 miles of "system attributes."

The vehicle barrier system will include vehicle barriers, patrol roads and technology, the release says. The barriers are not 30-foot-tall steel walls, they're assuring residents, but "limited, low-profile, post-on-rail barriers," intended to keep vehicles from accessing the border. 

The system attributes will reportedly include a mix of patrol roads and/or technology, depending upon the location within the more than 200 miles of construction. The technology includes cameras and sensors. 

The statement also says the CBP intends to leverage the natural barriers that already exist in the area. Much of the border runs along the Rio Grande, which is lined by cliffs, canyons and rugged terrain. 

$1.7B Big Bend contract

The backstory:

The money was awarded to Southwest Valley Constructors, with a listed start date of May 11, 2026, and a potential end date of Dec. 7, 2028. 

The contractor is listed online as an Albuquerque-based company specializing in large-scale construction for the federal government. According to USASpending.org, the contractor has been awarded 12 projects by the government, totaling $2 billion since 2019.

The interactive map shows a large section of the park, displayed below in yellow, which is labeled "Big Bend 4 Technology & Patrol Road (No Wall). The contract was awarded for the "segment identified as BBT-4" in the USASpending listing. 

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Big Bend border security: $1.7 billion awarded despite 'no wall' in CBP plans

Despite "no wall" being planned for Big Bend National Park at Texas' southern border, a $1.7 billion contract has been awarded for ongoing U.S. Customs and Border immigration-deterring construction. 

Environmental concerns

Dig deeper:

Despite the removal of a 30-foot wall from the CBP's plans, the large-scale construction still raises questions about the environmental impact within the protected land. 

Conservationists like Laiken Jordahl, a national public lands advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, have told FOX Local they intend to continue the fight to prevent the "massively destructive, universally despised trainwreck" before it mars the park.

In February, former DHS Sec. Kristi Noem waived 28 environmental and cultural resource protection laws to fast-track construction in the Big Bend region, including that section of Texas state park. Some of these statutes are named things like "The National Environmental Policy Act," "the Endangered Species Act," and "the Federal Water Pollution Control Act."