Presidio County Sheriff Danny Dominguez is urging federal officials to reconsider plans for a continuous border wall through the county, arguing that the region’s rugged mountains, canyons and desert terrain already form substantial natural barriers along much of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Dominguez outlined his concerns in a letter dated Aug. 31 that the Presidio County Sheriff’s Office shared publicly on social media. The sheriff said he supports border enforcement but believes security measures should be tailored to conditions on the ground rather than applying the same approach to every section of the border.
“In my professional judgment, border-security infrastructure should be location-specific and threat-specific,” Dominguez wrote. “Resources should be directed toward locations where actual conditions demonstrate an operational need.”
Dominguez, who said he has lived and worked in the area for more than 35 years and has served 29 years as Presidio County sheriff, pointed specifically to the Rio Grande corridor and Farm-to-Market Road 170, commonly known as River Road.
Unlike heavily developed border areas such as El Paso, Eagle Pass and the Lower Rio Grande Valley, much of Presidio County’s international boundary runs through remote desert, mountains, cliffs, arroyos and deep canyons, Dominguez said.
In some areas, he wrote, the terrain makes crossing the border by vehicle “physically or practically impossible,” while traveling on foot can be extremely difficult because of steep terrain, long distances, limited water and a lack of nearby roads or communities.
Dominguez said Presidio County also does not experience the volume of unlawful crossings seen in more heavily traveled sections of the border.
“I do not believe construction of a continuous physical border wall through the rugged portions of Presidio County is necessary to provide effective border security,” he wrote.
The sheriff emphasized that his position is not opposition to border security or immigration enforcement. He said physical barriers can have legitimate law enforcement uses in areas where population, roads, traffic patterns or established smuggling routes make them operationally useful.
Instead of a continuous wall, Dominguez pointed to personnel, patrols, cameras, sensors, aircraft and other surveillance technology already used by federal authorities as resources that can be concentrated where crossings occur.
He also raised concerns about the potential effects of construction along River Road, which passes through some of the Big Bend region’s most dramatic landscapes.
Building substantial barriers through mountains and canyons could require heavy equipment, clearing, excavation, grading and new access roads, Dominguez wrote. He warned that damage to the landscape could not simply be reversed if construction were later found to be unnecessary or unlawful.
Dominguez called for temporarily suspending additional construction while officials evaluate those concerns. Such a pause, he said, would leave Border Patrol agents, sheriff’s deputies, surveillance systems, roads and other existing security resources in place.
“I do not believe temporarily maintaining the present status quo while these issues are considered would create an immediate border-security emergency in Presidio County,” Dominguez wrote.
The sheriff said he has joined other Big Bend-area sheriffs in raising concerns about a continuous wall through the region.
“Effective border security and preservation of Presidio County’s unique landscape are not mutually exclusive objectives,” Dominguez wrote.
