Texas Land Commissioner Orders Feds to Stop “Illegally” Clearing Border Land

By Alejandro Santos Cid / The Texas Tribune

PRESIDIO, TX — Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham sent a cease and desist letter on Friday to Customs and Border Protection and federal contractor Barnard Construction, accusing the company of illegally clearing state land in Presidio County, on the U.S-Mexico border. 

Buckingham’s letter came less than two weeks after the city of Presidio and Presidio County’s economic development organization sued the Trump administration saying the federal government’s plans to install barriers and other detection technology on the border along the Rio Grande will damage communities and cause flooding in the Big Bend area. 

In Friday’s letter, Buckingham told CBP and its contractor Barnard that the latter had trespassed and “significantly altered” the General Land Office-managed land by using “heavy construction equipment to blade the terrain and remove all vegetation in its path.” The pictures that the GLO provided show land that has been dug up and crushed by excavators. It’s not clear what the land is being cleared for. 

“This is not about border security — it’s about the sovereignty of the state of Texas. It is absolutely unacceptable for any federal contractor to enter and deface Texas state lands,” Buckingham said in a written statement. “As the steward of over 13 million acres, it is my duty to defend the people of Texas’s interests and immutable control of their state lands from any encroachment — and I won’t apologize for it.” 

Turmoil around the prospective CBP plans for expanding the border barriers in Presidio County has grown over the past weeks as residents  organize to oppose the border wall. Hundreds of neighbors who own land across the border have received letters throughout the year from CBP, urging them to let contractors on their land or risk losing it through eminent domain. 

Buckingham said in the letter that Barnard illegally entered three different sections of land, part of a 10,000-acre hunting, recreation and grazing lease held by Trans Pecos Ice LLC, a property management company, but managed by GLO. 

She said the damage by the company devalued the GLO’s lease and the ability for it to generate revenue. The agency manages 13 million acres of land, including leases that make money for the Permanent School Fund.

“I am committed to maintaining a positive relationship with CBP, but we will not allow rogue actors who breached our agreement to undermine the incredible work we do for Texas,” Buckingham said in a news release.  

The letter said that Trans Pecos may have given Barnard permission to cross the GLO lands to access other patches of the border that the company privately owns, but emphasized that the lease with the GLO doesn’t allow modifying the state’s land. The federal government has awarded Barnard, a Montana firm run by a donor of President Donald Trump, several federal contracts worth billions of dollars to build the border wall.

“We are still investigating the extent of the communications between Trans Pecos and Barnard. Regardless, the lease does not allow for any land modifications, excavation, or construction on the property without the GLO’s express written consent, which has not been given to Trans Pecos, Barnard, or CBP,” the letter said. 

Local media have previously reported collaboration between both companies to build the wall on Trans Pecos’ border land across Presidio, Jeff Davis, and Hudspeth, the same counties where the financial organization is leasing soil from the GLO. 

CBP and Barnard didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The GLO has not received any response from CBP, Barnard or Trans Pecos yet, the agency told to The Texas Tribune. The GLO didn’t answer a question about the nature of the project CBP is developing on the land.

In the letter, the GLO urged CBP, Barnard and Trans Pecos to return the land to its original condition and to develop a “proposed reclamation plan to present to GLO for approval.”