Marfa, Texas — A coalition of Texas landowners along the U.S.-Mexico border are fighting the Trump administration's plan to seize private property for border wall construction in several counties in the Big Bend region.
On Monday, six landowners and the nonprofit Conserve Big Bend, representing an additional 230 landowners, filed a lawsuit in U.S. district court in Washington D.C. against the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott, over the government's border wall plans for the area.
"Hundreads of us are standing together to defend our constitutional rights and our private property — including land that many families have stewarded for generations," said Clara Bensen, a board member of the nonprofit No Big Bend Wall, a project of Conserve Big Bend.
This legal challenge was announced Monday at a press conference at the Presidio County courthouse in Marfa, where a few dozen landowners, public officials — and even two horses — gathered to display flags saying "don't tread on me" and "don't mess with Big Bend."
The lawsuit alleges that the DHS Secretary issued federal waivers for the project earlier this year even though the Big Bend region doesn't meet the requirements needed for the waivers in the first place. These waivers determined the Big Bend Sector to be an area of "high illegal entry" for undocumented immigrants.
The Big Bend Sector, a 517-mile stretch of the border, saw fewer than 1.5% of the total apprehensions on the entire southwest border over the past five years, according to CBP data.
The determination allowed the agency to unlock expedited construction and bypass dozens of federal environmental, public health, cultural, and historic preservation laws under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA).
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop border wall construction in the entire region, including on steel vehicle barriers and roads inside the Big Bend National Park.
The suit also claims landowner's fifth amendment rights to due process are being violated.
"We live every day on edge not knowing what will become of our home, our ranching operation or our future," said landowner Yolanda Alvarado. "There is no transparency from our own government or officials."
The court has 60 days to respond to the lawsuit. DHS and CBP did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit.
The landowners' lawsuit is the latest in a slew of legal battles the federal government is facing over its "Smart Wall," plans in the Big Bend region which involve the installation of 30-foot-high steel bollard walls, vehicle barriers, patrol roads, lighting, cameras and technology across private, state and federal lands along the Rio Grande river.
Since February, when landowners began receiving eminent domain letters from DHS, everyone from Republican sheriffs to landowners to river guides have come out in opposition to the wall, contending that barriers and walls will hurt the pristine desert landscape that fuels the region's tourism economy. Signs and bumper stickers declaring "No Al Muro," Spanish for "No to the wall," quickly spread.
In April, a landowner coalition was created by No Big Bend Wall to provide local landowners with legal resources. The coalition has since grown to include 230 landowners across five counties, roughly half of the private landowners in the Big Bend Sector, according to the group.
David Keller, a landowner and plaintiff in the lawsuit filed Monday, said locals are fighting "the biggest threat" the Big Bend region has ever faced.
"People have refused access agreements. Survey and construction schedules have fallen months behind. Contractors have been sent home," Keller said. "They were woefully unprepared for the hornet's nest they stirred up. They have no idea how much we love this place."
Lawsuits challenging the federal waivers have been unsuccessful thus far. Bensen said the Conserve Big Bend case is different in that it focuses on the Big Bend region specifically.
"It asks a narrower question which is whether DHS can lawfully authorize wall construction in this particular region given its geography, history and low level of border activity," Bensen said.
Lico Miller is also a part of No Big Bend Wall's landowner coalition. A ranch that has been in his wife's family for generations near Ruidosa, Texas, is in the path of the proposed 30-foot-high steel border wall.
He said what makes the border wall so problematic in this area of Texas, and on his property specifically, is that it will cut off landowners from water from the Rio Grande, the most valuable part of their property supporting ranching and farming operations.
"All of our lower farmlands and pastures will more than likely be behind the barrier, as well as our little ranch house and our ranch out-buildings," Miller said.
He said he is hopeful that the new lawsuit will help slow down the project, and reinstate the federal laws that were waived.
" It is inevitable that this administration is going to try and build this wall," Miller said. "It is not inevitable that they will get it done."
Miller initially experienced a "wall of incredulity" about the project, he said, until he saw CBP awarding billions of dollars to border wall contractors for the work. In total, over $7 billion has been awarded for the Big Bend Sector border barrier projects.
Miller said, moving forward, it will be key for landowners to continue to stay unified, and remember that the river is what gives their properties sentimental and economic value.
" We have to believe that Texas' sovereignty is being impinged upon. That all this tough guy Texas 'don't tread on me' stuff at some point means something," Miller said. "We are the final line of people standing up against this."
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