U.S. Customs and Border Protection just announced that steel bollard wall panel installation at Big Bend, Texas will begin in August, covering 56.3 miles of previously open border in Presidio County. That's Section 3 of a five-part project that will stretch 171.9 miles of primary barrier across Presidio and Hudspeth Counties alone — with another 330 miles of vehicle barriers and wall in Sections 4 and 5.
The federal government has committed $7.5 billion to the Big Bend region. For a "medieval solution," the price tag looks awfully modern.
CBP spokesperson John Mennell laid it out plainly in an interview with The Center Square: "We've been ordered to do it by President Donald Trump's executive order, as well as the funding and appropriations under the One Big Beautiful Bill. The priority is to do the entire border." Not some of the border. Not the politically convenient parts. The entire border.
The money is already allocated. Barnard Construction Co. landed a $1 billion contract for Big Bend 1 — 47.4 miles in Hudspeth County, with wall panel installation set for September. The same company picked up a $960 million contract for Big Bend 3, the section launching in August. Fisher Sand & Gravel holds a $1.2 billion contract for Big Bend 2 — 68.2 miles, also in Presidio County, with construction expected to begin in September. And Fisher picked up another contract worth $2.6 billion for Big Bend 5 in early June. Southwest Valley Constructors rounds it out with a $1.7 billion contract for Big Bend 4.
The total package? CBP is pulling from $46.5 billion appropriated under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to construct what they're calling a "Smart Wall" — steel bollard barriers paired with patrol roads, detection technology, cameras, infrared illuminators, lighting, and in some stretches a waterborne barrier or secondary wall creating a double-layer system.
None of this is theoretical. Contracts are signed. Crews are mobilizing. CBP issued a public comment period running through July 13, 2026, for a vehicle barrier system component — the bureaucratic box-checking that means shovels are close behind.
Environmental groups and a coalition called No Big Bend Wall have been pushing back, arguing the wall threatens wildlife corridors and parkland. CBP spokesperson Hilton Beckham addressed it directly: "CBP is not planning to construct a 30-foot-high barrier in Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park or the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area." About 2 miles of barrier will run through sections of the western edge of Big Bend Ranch State Park, with CBP coordinating with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to "minimize impacts to wildlife and sensitive habitats."
Two miles through the edge of a state park out of 172 miles of new barrier. That's the supposed environmental catastrophe.
The opposition pattern hasn't changed in a decade. First they said the wall was a campaign stunt that would never get funded. Then the One Big Beautiful Bill funded it with $46.5 billion. Then they said no contractor would build it. Then Barnard and Fisher signed billions in contracts. Then they said Big Bend was sacred ground where construction couldn't happen. Now CBP is posting start dates.
Every argument against the wall has an expiration date. The wall itself doesn't.
