U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said Tuesday a $1.7 billion federal contract awarded last week to an Albuquerque construction firm will not be used for a steel border wall inside Big Bend National Park and will instead pay for vehicle barriers, surveillance technology and "patrol roads."
"It does not involve the construction of a 30-foot-high barrier in Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park or the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area," a CBP spokesperson said in a statement. "Instead, it utilizes technology like cameras and sensors, along with limited, low-profile, post-on-rail barriers in strategic areas designed to restrict vehicle access while leveraging the natural barriers that already exist in the area."
The agency's statement came days after the contract in question was posted to a federal government spending website, where it was listed as being for "border wall in Big Bend, Texas." The posting also linked the award to a project dubbed "BBT-4," which CBP confirmed Tuesday is the same "Big Bend Project 4" that is currently slated to run along and near the Rio Grande throughout the national park.
The initial posting prompted concerns that border wall plans for the park were suddenly back on after months of CBP insisting that it was not pursuing a wall there.
The agency did not explain in its statement why the contracting website showed the money being for a "wall."
Local county officials told Marfa Public Radio this week that they were briefed by CBP officials in recent days and similarly informed that the agency is not planning a physical wall inside the national park.
The Trump administration's map of border projects through the Big Bend region has changed multiple times in recent months. The changes have been published online with no announcement and have instead been noticed mostly by local residents, advocates and news outlets paying close attention to the map. At one point in recent weeks, the map was removed from CBP's "Smart Wall" landing page altogether.
As Marfa Public Radio reported in late April, the most recent changes included plans for border vehicle barriers and "patrol roads" in some parts of the park.
CBP said in its statement Tuesday the $1.7 billion will go toward about 17 miles of a "vehicle barrier system" inside the national park – comprised of a mix of barriers, patrol roads and technology – along with about 205 miles of what the agency described as "system attributes" that will "include a mix of patrol roads and/or technology, depending upon the location."
The current plans for Big Bend National Park are nonetheless an expansion of CBP's earlier border security plans in March, when the agency was planning only "detection technology" throughout the park.
The company awarded the new federal contract in the Big Bend region – Southwest Valley Constructors – has received multiple other border security-related federal contracts in recent years for projects in Arizona, South Texas and other locations.
Last week's $1.7 billion contract award to the firm is one of the Department of Homeland Security's largest awards so far during President Trump's second term, according to federal spending records.
Outside the national park in the greater Big Bend region, CBP is still moving forward with plans for a 175-mile stretch of border wall across Hudspeth, Jeff Davis and Presidio counties. Two federal contractors – Barnard Construction Company and Fisher Sand & Gravel – have together received more than $3 billion in contract awards for that project.
The ongoing border wall plan for the region comes at a time when the Trump administration itself has noted that illegal border crossings have reached "historically low" numbers. CBP data show border agents have "encountered" just 1,168 people in the agency's Big Bend Sector so far this fiscal year.
Local advocates have continued to speak out against plans for any physical wall building in the Big Bend region and said even road construction and technology upgrades in the national park could lead to environmental damage and light pollution.
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