Dear President Trump,
I’m writing today with a simple plea: Please do not hand over the Rio Grande River to Mexico.
When I was 14 years old, I traveled to the Big Bend region of West Texas for the first time. As a suburban kid from Philadelphia, I’d never seen anything quite like it. Counties nearly the size of New Jersey held no more than a couple thousand permanent residents. Mountains, rivers, desert arroyos, cattle ranches—miles and miles of wild, untouched land stretched out in every direction, mostly unobstructed. In this region I learned to shoot guns, ride horses, drink beer, operate a forklift, and put in a hard day’s work. As an adult, I decided to buy land here—just a few miles from the border—to build a home for my family and, I hoped, for my son to inherit. I worked hard for it, and I fulfilled my American dream.
Now, though, that dream and the entire region is at risk because of plans to construct a border wall here. This wall would be unnecessary; it would destroy jobs, hand over a critical natural resource to Mexico, and not actually improve border security. Mr. President: This is a bad deal.
All you need to know is the simple math: The Big Bend Sector of West Texas accounts for over 500 miles of the border with Mexico, roughly 25% of the entire U.S.-Mexico border. Yet, in 2024, it accounted for 0.32% of all border encounters, according to DHS data. For years, this part of the border has been kept secure by the Border Patrol, cameras, technology, and—of course— nature. While plans are in place for a 30-foot border wall, the region is covered in thousand-foot tall mountains, cliffs, and arroyos. It is over 100 degrees here most days in the summer, and freezing in the winter. The dry, waterless land is full of cactus, snakes, scorpions, spiders, and all manner of predators. There is no need for a border wall; it is already, in many ways, impassable.
Worse yet, a border wall here would destroy a critical part of West Texas’s economy: Tourism. In Brewster County—where I built my home and where Big Bend National Park is located—about 20% of all employment is tied to tourism, which drove $60 million in revenue in 2025. Most of that tourism consists of activities like river guiding, horseback riding, and other outfitting experiences (such as guided fishing trips, park stays, hikes, or off-road experiences). Most of the other employment opportunities support the tourism industry (shuttle driving, office admin work, restaurants, lodging and hotels, park jobs, etc). All of this would be at risk if Americans were cut off from the river, or a wall tore through the parks, and tourists stopped coming.
Here along the border in Big Bend, there is nearly unanimous opposition to the wall. Republican representatives, judges, sheriffs, and local leaders here all oppose construction of a border wall. They know we don’t need it because the border here is already secure under your leadership. If you doubt this, you should come visit and tour the area—people would be glad to show you what an incredible part of the country it is, and why a wall is so unnecessary.
On Tuesday night, in your State of the Union address, you assured me and my fellow Americans that from “the rugged border towns of Texas to heartland villages of Michigan,” the golden age of America “was upon us.” You paid homage to the brave Americans who “ventured out across the daunting and dangerous continent,” and “carved through an unforgiving wilderness, settled a boundless frontier and tamed the beautiful but very, very dangerous Wild West.”
Your mistake was speaking about these rugged borderlands and tamers of the Wild West in the past tense, as if we were dead and left in some bygone era. We’re not. We’re still there, chasing your golden era vision, taming the wild lands of our nation, living off its pristine and rugged offerings, and welcoming visitors from across the world to experience it themselves. We’re trying to make a living and preserve this great land, which is supposed to be American land. However, Mr. President, your initiative here puts all that frontier at risk—all for the sake of an unnecessary, expensive, and useless wall.
Please consider the West Texans on the front line of the border who do not want any wall here. If you don’t believe it, you should come see for yourself.
Sincerely,
Isaac Saul
Saul is the founder and editor of Tangle, which covers the biggest politics stories in the U.S. by summarizing arguments from the right, left, and center (then “Tangle’s take”). You can read the full version of Saul’s take on the wall at readtangle.com/trump-border-wall-big-bend-region/.
