SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
In west Texas, the Trump administration is temporarily stopping construction on a border infrastructure project in Big Bend National Park. The head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Rodney Scott, said Monday he was pausing all construction activity in the park. He will be traveling to the region for a, quote, "personal evaluation." Travis Bubenik with Marfa Public Radio has been following this story all year and joins us this morning. Hi, Travis.
TRAVIS BUBENIK, BYLINE: Morning.
PFEIFFER: Some of our listeners may have seen the images of bulldozers clearing land and vegetation in the park earlier this month. What can you tell us about why this work is being stopped now?
BUBENIK: It's really just the result of a bipartisan pushback to this plan here in west Texas and across the state that's been bubbling up to the surface for, really, months now. People out here from local residents to leaders, to Republican and Democratic sheriffs across the region are just angry about these plans for new barriers and roads in this national park. I mean, almost the second the bulldozers showed up, there was just a lot of outrage about this across the state and the country. Just a few days ago, the CBP commissioner, Rodney Scott, initially defended the work, calling it survey and design work. But there's just been continued shock and anger at these images of, you know, heavy machinery cutting through the pristine desert out here in west Texas. And, again, there's a chorus of people in the region across political aisles that say the barriers are just not needed out here.
PFEIFFER: Travis, I understand that yesterday you took a flight over Big Bend. Tell us what you saw.
BUBENIK: We did, yeah. We got up in a little plane with a local pilot, hovered over these mountains for a while and tried to get eyes on what was going on in the park. And we did see a couple of construction sites where you could clearly see the crews had started cutting new paths into this untouched, rocky desert. But we also did see the heavy machinery idled, the work stopped. In fact, you know, seeing this region from the sky gives you a good sense of just how extremely remote and rugged it is. There are massive mountains that line either side of the Rio Grande, hardly any roads leading to the southern border from the Mexican side.
The landscape out here is simply too extreme for huge numbers of people to cross. That's why CBP's own data shows this region consistently has some of the lowest numbers of border crossings of any part of the southwestern border. And, you know, the remoteness is why people love it. I mean, when you're up in the sky over these huge mountains and steep canyons, it's beautiful. It looks prehistoric. It's untouched. And that is what people love about this region. Commissioner Scott said yesterday, in fact, he was going to get his own aerial tour of the region, as he's set to meet with local leaders.
PFEIFFER: And, Travis, you've touched on this, this sort of outpouring of, as you said, bipartisan outrage. But give us more of a sense, especially for listeners who haven't been to Big Bend, about why people feel so strongly about this place.
BUBENIK: You know, anyone who ever comes out here even once loves it. I mean, it is beautiful, wide-open country. It is the mythic picture of what Texas is supposed to be, you know (laughter)? It's sometimes called Texas' gift to the nation. And locals just say that these border plans could change this region forever, and, more pressingly, could kill this region's tourism-dependent economy. A lot of the economy here is river trips on the Rio Grande, camping and hiking in the national park. At a protest in the park last week, Jessica Bartko, a local river outfitter whose business depends on tourists, spoke out against these plans.
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JESSICA BARTKO: This is not Texan. This is not American. Our parks belong to the American public. We have entrusted our federal government to protect our parks, not destroy them. What they are doing is actively waging a war against our parks, our public lands, our communities and our livelihoods.
BUBENIK: And Commissioner Scott has said in recent days his agency is, quote, "securing this park to protect its legacy." But, again, locals just say any new border infrastructure out here is an existential threat to their way of life.
PFEIFFER: That is Travis Bubenik with Marfa Public Radio. Travis, thank you for covering this for us.
BUBENIK: You're welcome.
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