2,044 events on record Subscribe September 10, 2026
Standing Record home The Standing Record A non-partisan record of US democratic norms —
and the events that erode them.

CBP contractor Barnard Construction bladed and cleared Texas state trust land in Presidio County without required consent

On July 31, 2026, the Texas General Land Office sent a cease-and-desist letter after finding that Barnard Construction, a federal contractor building U.S. Customs and Border Protection's border wall, had used heavy equipment to blade terrain and clear vegetation across more than a mile of state trust land in Presidio County, Texas, without the GLO's required written consent. The land is part of a roughly 10,000-acre grazing lease the GLO holds with Trans Pecos Ice LLC along the planned Big Bend-area wall corridor; the GLO said the unauthorized clearing devalued the lease and demanded restoration and a reclamation plan. CBP acknowledged the incident and said it was working with the contractor and the GLO to resolve it, while Barnard did not respond to requests for comment.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Presidio County, Texas

Abuses documented

Actors

On July 31, 2026, the Texas General Land Office (GLO) sent a cease-and-desist letter to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and its contractor Barnard Construction after finding that Barnard had trespassed onto and "significantly altered" state trust land in Presidio County, Texas, using heavy construction equipment to blade the terrain and strip vegetation across more than a mile of the property. The land sits within a roughly 10,000-acre grazing and recreation lease the GLO holds with Trans Pecos Ice LLC, a company managed by Yeti co-founder Ryan Seiders, along the corridor of CBP's planned Big Bend-area border wall expansion. Photos the GLO provided showed the tract dug up and crushed by excavators; it remained unclear what the clearing was for.

Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham's letter stated plainly that the GLO's lease "does not allow for any land modifications, excavation, or construction on the property without the GLO's express written consent," and that such consent "has not been given to Trans Pecos, Barnard, or CBP." The GLO said the unauthorized work devalued the lease and diminished its ability to generate revenue for Texas's Permanent School Fund, and it demanded the land be restored and that CBP, Barnard, and Trans Pecos submit a reclamation plan for approval. The letter came less than two weeks after the city of Presidio and a local economic development group sued the Trump administration over the same border-wall expansion, alleging it would damage communities and worsen flooding in the Big Bend area.

CBP acknowledged the cease-and-desist the same evening, with a spokesperson saying the agency was "working to resolve this issue with the Contractor and the TX GLO to ensure this does not happen in the future" and noting that contractors are responsible for verifying their legal access to property. Barnard did not respond to requests for comment, and the GLO said it was still investigating the extent of communications between Trans Pecos and Barnard over access to the site.

Why we recorded this

Federalism requires the federal government to obtain lawful authorization before altering land it does not own or control, rather than treating state property as available for the taking. Here, a border-wall contractor working for U.S. Customs and Border Protection used heavy equipment to blade and clear vegetation across more than a mile of Texas state trust land without the written consent its own lease required, altering the property before any authorization existed. This archive records executive action that proceeds past the legal limits on federal authority over land it does not control, leaving the affected jurisdiction to discover and object to the damage only after the fact.

Sources

  1. Texas commissioner orders feds to stop clearing border tract — The Texas Tribune investigative accessed August 1, 2026
  2. Texas officials order contractor on Big Bend area border wall to halt land clearing — Texas Public Radio investigative accessed August 1, 2026
  3. Texas land commissioner sends cease and desist for alleged illegal land clearing in Hudspeth County — KVIA (El Paso) investigative accessed August 1, 2026

See also