Southwest Valley employees install T posts and rope along a leveled river access area off Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive in Big Bend National Park on Aug. 13, 2026.

Credit: Texas Tribune / Kaylee Greenlee For over a generation, Texas Republicans have owned the politics of the southern border.

Now the Trump administration's latest border project has them cornered, stuck between constituents outraged over federal plans to carve roads and barriers through Big Bend and a president none of them want to cross.