Bulldozers are clearing land at the mouth of Santa Elena Canyon as federal border construction moves into one of the most iconic landscapes in Big Bend National Park.
New video shared by conservation advocate Laiken Jordahl shows heavy equipment actively moving earth at the mouth of the canyon, with Santa Elena’s towering limestone walls immediately behind the construction area.
The footage provides some of the clearest documentation yet of the physical impact of the Department of Homeland Security’s border infrastructure project inside Big Bend National Park.
Santa Elena Canyon is one of the park’s signature landmarks. The Rio Grande emerges from between limestone walls rising roughly 1,500 feet above the river, with the United States on one side and Mexico on the other.
The construction is part of a broader federal effort to expand border infrastructure across the Big Bend region. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has said plans inside the national park do not call for a traditional 30-foot pedestrian wall. The project instead includes vehicle barriers, patrol roads, surveillance technology and other infrastructure.
But the absence of a traditional border wall does not mean the landscape will remain undisturbed.
The latest footage shows bulldozers actively clearing ground at the mouth of Santa Elena Canyon.
The Department of Homeland Security has invoked federal authority allowing it to waive environmental and historic preservation laws to expedite border construction in the region. The waivers have raised concerns among conservationists and residents about what protections remain for environmentally and culturally sensitive areas affected by construction.
Opposition to additional border infrastructure in the Big Bend region has also crossed political lines. Critics have questioned both the environmental consequences and the necessity of constructing extensive physical infrastructure in terrain where mountains, cliffs and canyons already create formidable natural barriers.
Santa Elena Canyon is among the clearest examples.
The canyon is one of the most photographed and visited locations in Big Bend National Park and one of the defining landscapes of the Texas-Mexico border.
Now bulldozers are working at its mouth.
