An economic development organization for the city of Presidio and Presidio County filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Wednesday, saying the federal government’s plans to install border barriers and other technology along the Rio Grande will cause communities to flood in the Big Bend area.
Democracy Forward, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., filed the lawsuit in a federal court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the Presidio Municipal Development District, which advocates for the city’s economic development and is governed by a board appointed by the city of Presidio.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement that the Trump administration’s border wall plans in the Big Bend region — made up of Presidio, Jeff Davis and Brewster counties — is reckless and disregards the harm border barriers will do to the community.
“Construction on the federal flood-control works in Presidio could compromise their integrity and leave the region vulnerable to deadly flash floods capable of destroying infrastructure, homes, farmland, and agriculture,” Perryman said. “That means real harm to real people in the area. Democracy Forward is honored to hold the government accountable as it recklessly pushes forward with its unlawful border wall construction.”
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said in a statement that the Trump administration is still in the planning stages of where to erect border barriers and where to install technology in the Big Bend region.
In the lawsuit, Democracy Forward claims the Trump administration did not seek permission from the Secretary of the Army to build any border barriers along the Presidio Flood Control Project — a levee system and boundary line built and managed by the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission.
The claim says that building 30-foot steel bollards embedded in a concrete base on top of the earthen slope of the existing levee can lead to dangerous floods. The current earthen levees have helped protect the region from dangerous floods in 1978 and in 2008, when parts of Presidio flooded. Altering the current levees can cause more harm, the lawsuit says.
The Trump administration has said it wants to close any gaps along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, including in the Big Bend region, an isolated expanse surrounded by rugged canyons and mountains that have served as natural barriers, deterring people from crossing the border illegally.
Big Bend is the largest Border Patrol sector, covering 77 Texas counties and 517 miles of the 1,954-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency recorded 3,096 migrant encounters in the sector in fiscal year 2025, or 1.3% of the 237,538 apprehensions recorded across the entire U.S.-Mexico border.
That is a 74% drop compared to the two previous fiscal years. And in the first seven months of the current fiscal year, the sector has logged 1,236 encounters, a 42.5% drop compared to the first seven months of the previous year.
Still, the Trump administration has described the region as “an area of high illegal entry where illegal aliens regularly attempt to enter the United States and smuggle illicit drugs.”
There is bipartisan opposition to the Trump administration’s border barrier efforts in Big Bend, which includes Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park. The Trump administration has said it is installing sensors and vehicle barriers in the parks, and has also sent letters to private landowners along the Rio Grande seeking permission to survey their land or potentially lose it to eminent domain.
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