A group of private landowners in western and southwestern Texas filed a federal lawsuit Monday to stop the Trump administration from building border walls, barriers and roads through their properties.The group includes some property owners and local residents who were up in arms a couple of years ago demanding better enforcement along the border and criticizing the Biden administration for spikes in immigrant border crossings.
The lawsuit was filed by Conserve Big Bend, an umbrella group that includes a coalition of about 230 landowners, and six plaintiffs.It was filed in Washington, D.C.The plaintiffs allege the administration has wrongly designated the area along the Texas border as one of “high illegal entry.”The Trump administration did so, the lawsuit states, to invoke “extraordinary power” to build a border wall on their property in “one of the most remote, rugged and ecologically significant stretches of the United States.”Landowners and other supporters hold signs against the Trump administration's plans to build a border wall and other infrastructure in Texas' remote Big Bend region on Monday in Marfa, Texas.Rebecca Santana / APBut in 2025 the Customs and Border Protection’s Big Bend sector, which stretches over 77 counties and the state of Oklahoma, tallied the fewest number of apprehensions — just 1.3% — among the total of nine southwest border sectors, according to the lawsuit.
The same has been true in the last five years, when the Big Bend sector accounted for 1.16% of apprehensions and had the lowest number each year, according to the lawsuit.Holding signs that read “Landowners against Border Wall,” landowners and their supporters stood Monday at the Presidio County Courthouse in Marfa, where the filing of the lawsuit was announced at a news conference.
Some wore their summer cowboy hats and large silver belt buckles, while others held aloft flags of Texas and the U.S.One flag flown said, “Don’t Mess with Big Bend.” “...