Welp. It’s happening. Bulldozers and heavy equipment arrived in Big Bend National Park today. The most rugged, pristine lands in the lower 48. Trump’s border wall is coming. CBP is refusing to inform residents, park superintendents, landowners, business owners, or Texas legislators what is happening. What we know is that they are now paving new roads where there were none, erecting fencing and walls to protect those roads, and then planning to install technology and border patrol agents in an area where close to zero people ever cross the border. Ironically, depressingly, they will be spending billions of dollars to destroy this pristine American land while literally making it easier to access, which means easier for coyotes and border crossers to actually traverse the region if they wanted to. Before this, there were no roads, just desserts, cliffs, and cacti, which made it all but impassable. A few miles upstream, the first border barriers the administration just erected were washed away in the first flood of the season — not even a bad one — but hundreds of millions of dollars wasted, literally floating down the Rio Grande. A few miles downstream, near Eagle Pass, razor wire and debris are washing up ashore from the first floods there, making this critical water source inaccessible for Texans or any wildlife enthusiasts. Right now, as we speak, $4 billion is flowing to contractors in Trump’s orbit to cut Texans, including me and my family, off from the most critical water source in the state. All for what? Big Bend is 25% of the patrolled southwest border and accounts for less than 1% of all border crossings. Border towns, businesses, tourism — all about to be destroyed. Nevermind the irreversible wildlife damage, the feds stealing land from private citizens via eminent domain, and all the money wasted that could go to actual solutions to secure the border or support these communities. Ever since I first visited my family here when I was 13 years old I wanted to make a life in West Texas. Three years ago, after so much hard work and planning, I spent my savings on building a home there. One I hoped my son would inherit. A home in one of the most beautiful, rugged, untouched, places in the country. Also one of the safest. Now, everything that makes this special place special is being upended — for an illogical, wasteful, stupid plan that won't work and won't help the country. A genuine gut punch. So depressing.