Latest / The Real News Podcast / Trump Messed With Texas. Now an Army of Pissed-Off Texans Are Fighting His Border Wall

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Trump Messed With Texas. Now an Army of Pissed-Off Texans Are Fighting His Border Wall · The Real News Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: All right welcome everyone to working people a podcast about
0:10
Speaker 1: the lives jobs dreams and struggles of the working class
0:14
Speaker 1: today my name is maximilian.
0:17
Speaker 2: Alvarez and i'm jules taylor And today.
0:20
Speaker 3: We are going to Terlingua in West Texas, right on
0:24
Speaker 3: the U.S.-Mexico border and right next to Big Bend National Park.
0:27
Speaker 3: As the Texas Tribune reports, quote, Since President Trump returned
0:32
Speaker 3: to office in January of 2025, his administration has renewed
0:36
Speaker 3: efforts to erect border barriers in parts of the U.S.-Mexico
0:40
Speaker 3: border that don't currently have any. That includes the Big
0:43
Speaker 3: Bend region in far west Texas, home to the Big
0:46
Speaker 3: Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park, both
0:50
Speaker 3: of which the Trump administration has targeted for border security infrastructure. Historically,
0:56
Speaker 3: the region has recorded the fewest illegal crossings along the
0:59
Speaker 3: entire southwest border, but the Trump administration has awarded billions
1:03
Speaker 3: of dollars worth of contracts to build some form of
1:06
Speaker 3: infrastructure to deter illegal border crossings. while telling concerned West
1:11
Speaker 3: Texas residents that they will not build a border wall
1:14
Speaker 3: or fence in the national park. Local residents, environmentalists, and
1:19
Speaker 3: a bipartisan group of elected officials, including sheriffs and county judges,
1:23
Speaker 3: have still asked the administration to stop all construction, end quote.
1:28
Speaker 4: According to the website of the community advocacy group No
1:31
Speaker 4: Big Bend Wall, $ 2. 1 billion in contracts have already been
1:36
Speaker 4: awarded for wall construction in Presidio and Hudspeck counties. Over
1:40
Speaker 4: 500 private landowners stand to lose access to the Rio
1:43
Speaker 4: Grande due to the proposed border wall. Construction is planned
1:46
Speaker 4: for Texas gems, including Big Bend National Park and Big
1:50
Speaker 4: Bend Ranch State Park. And the Department of Homeland Security
1:53
Speaker 4: is waiving 31 federal laws, including National Environmental Policy Act,
1:58
Speaker 4: National Historic Preservation Act, Native American Graves Protection and Reparations Act,
2:04
Speaker 4: and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
2:07
Speaker 3: So to talk about what the hell is happening on
2:09
Speaker 3: the U.S.-Mexico border, we are really grateful to be joined
2:13
Speaker 3: on the show today by a panel of folks who
2:16
Speaker 3: are on the front lines of this story and who
2:18
Speaker 3: are joining us from in or near Terlingua, Texas. Thank
2:22
Speaker 3: you all so much for joining us. Please introduce yourselves
2:26
Speaker 3: to our listeners.
2:27
Speaker 5: I'm Yolanda Alvarado. I'm a fifth-generation cattle rancher and the
2:32
Speaker 5: regional director for Conserve Big Bend. No Big Bend wall.
2:37
Speaker 6: Hi, I'm Crystal Albright. I live in Terlingua, Texas. I've
2:41
Speaker 6: lived here 36 years. My husband and I own a
2:45
Speaker 6: bicycle shop and have outdoor gear as well as art.
2:50
Speaker 6: We've operated the river for 29 years, but we've phased
2:56
Speaker 6: that out for now. I've visited the area since I
2:59
Speaker 6: was a young child and love it very much.
3:03
Speaker 7: I'm Sarah Riza, and I have the Desert Air Motel
3:06
Speaker 7: in Sanderson, Texas. It's a renovated 1960 motel in Sanderson,
3:11
Speaker 7: which is a gateway town into Big Bend. So While
3:15
Speaker 7: the national park and the state park are kind of
3:17
Speaker 7: the anchor places that bring people into the region, they're
3:20
Speaker 7: going through gateway towns to the region and into the park.
3:24
Speaker 8: And so a big part of this area is tourism.
3:28
Speaker 7: And there are a lot of independently owned small businesses
3:32
Speaker 7: that are concerned about what all of this is going
3:35
Speaker 7: to do in the short and long term for tourism.
3:37
Speaker 9: My name is Scott Weidner.
3:39
Speaker 10: I was a former superintendent on the Big Bend Ranch
3:42
Speaker 10: State Park along the river corridor located along the river road,
3:46
Speaker 10: which is just along the Rio Grande and covered about 50,000
3:51
Speaker 10: acres of the front country of the state park side.
3:56
Speaker 10: I have been going to the Big Bend for 30 years.
3:59
Speaker 9: My wife fell in love with me there, I think.
4:04
Speaker 10: To check and see if that's still true. But I
4:06
Speaker 10: currently live in Marfa, which is in Presidio County. I
4:10
Speaker 10: also am a property owner in three of the six
4:12
Speaker 10: counties in the affected area, in the Big Bend sector.
4:15
Speaker 10: And yeah, this is near and dear to my heart,
4:19
Speaker 10: my family's heart, and it will remain that way.
4:23
Speaker 11: My name is Sharon Reed Gavin, and I also live
4:25
Speaker 11: in Terlingua with my husband. We moved there in 2013, full-time.
4:28
Speaker 11: We had both love the Big Bend independently of knowing
4:34
Speaker 11: one another. My first time to go to there, and
4:38
Speaker 11: this was before most of y'all were born, but it
4:41
Speaker 11: was 1976 and went with some friends with the canoe
4:44
Speaker 11: and we wanted to do the river. And there weren't
4:46
Speaker 11: such things as desert sports really at the time, but
4:49
Speaker 11: we found some, some good folks like Crystal and her
4:52
Speaker 11: husband who, you know, would help us get, get down
4:56
Speaker 11: to the river and go on it for a while. But,
4:59
Speaker 11: you know, this, I have six grandchildren, and that's why
5:02
Speaker 11: this is so important to me, also for my neighbors
5:05
Speaker 11: and all that love the Big Bend. There's not a
5:07
Speaker 11: lot being done to save it by our elected officials,
5:11
Speaker 11: but I think all of our voices matter. All of
5:14
Speaker 11: these people are working so hard at their real jobs,
5:18
Speaker 11: and on top of it, doing especially what Yolanda and
5:22
Speaker 11: Sarah are doing with No Big Bend Wall. It's just
5:25
Speaker 11: all of these people are doing full-time jobs and doing
5:28
Speaker 11: a full-time job. with no big bin wall and I
5:30
Speaker 11: just appreciate them.
5:32
Speaker 3: Well, and we genuinely appreciate all of you for, for
5:35
Speaker 3: being here and talking to us about this. And, you know,
5:40
Speaker 3: I'm just incredibly sorry that you and your community are
5:43
Speaker 3: going through this, that, that, you know, our country is
5:46
Speaker 3: going through this, you know, it's like every week it's
5:49
Speaker 3: another horror show, but I really want to kind of
5:52
Speaker 3: zero in on, on what you were just talking about, Sharon, right.
5:56
Speaker 3: I've never had the pleasure of going to see Big
6:00
Speaker 3: Bend or being in this part of the country.
6:03
Speaker 2: I really hope to correct that soon.
6:07
Speaker 3: But this is, from what I've seen, one of the
6:10
Speaker 3: most just beautiful places on God's green earth. But for
6:14
Speaker 3: those of us who are not from there and for
6:17
Speaker 3: folks who are listening who have never been there, I
6:19
Speaker 3: want to ask if y'all can describe what our listeners
6:24
Speaker 3: can't see for themselves. Tell us more about this area
6:28
Speaker 3: and what it's like to live and work there.
6:31
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I'm not directly near Big Bend National Park.
6:36
Speaker 5: My family ranches in the Big Bend region, and that
6:40
Speaker 5: starts from Hudspeth County, and it goes all the way
6:43
Speaker 5: to Valverde County. But we have ranches in Hudspeth and
6:48
Speaker 5: Presidio and.
6:50
Speaker 8: Near Jeff Davis.
6:51
Speaker 5: And We've been out here for hundreds of years, and
6:54
Speaker 5: it's really just quite desolate. You can see for hundreds
6:59
Speaker 5: of miles just desert and no one around. It's a
7:03
Speaker 5: really serene environment, and it's also really harsh to be
7:08
Speaker 5: in the desert. It's filled with rural communities. No communities
7:14
Speaker 5: are huge out here. We have very... few ambulances.
7:19
Speaker 8: Small schools.
7:20
Speaker 5: Uh, my children go to a school with 35 students
7:23
Speaker 5: from kindergarten to high school. So it's just a really
7:28
Speaker 5: small time, small town, um, rural environment. And we throw
7:33
Speaker 5: on tourism and people going to the national park and
7:36
Speaker 5: passing through these small areas. So even though we are
7:40
Speaker 5: small in size or small landowners, um, It still feels big.
7:46
Speaker 5: It still feels connected to the rest of America because
7:50
Speaker 5: we still have all these visitors and people coming through.
7:53
Speaker 7: It also feels like time slows down here. You can relax.
8:00
Speaker 7: It's kind of the call of the desert. You wouldn't
8:03
Speaker 7: expect that you would love it so much if you
8:05
Speaker 7: weren't originally thought of yourself as a desert person. But
8:09
Speaker 7: it's also, it's very gritty. Like there's a grit to
8:13
Speaker 7: the people that live and work here. And a lot
8:15
Speaker 7: of the businesses, a lot of the business owners have
8:19
Speaker 7: several businesses. You know, we also have a liquor store.
8:22
Speaker 7: And also, you know, we're part of this bigger region,
8:25
Speaker 7: but we're also our own little communities. And in Sanderson,
8:29
Speaker 7: it's Terrell County that's getting vehicle barriers going through our county,
8:35
Speaker 7: which is only 20 miles to the border to the river.
8:38
Speaker 8: But that's all private land.
8:39
Speaker 7: So it's connected, you know, we're connected to geographically to
8:44
Speaker 7: the river where we are, but also to the region
8:46
Speaker 7: through the tourism.
8:47
Speaker 8: It's all really interconnected.
8:49
Speaker 6: Yeah, I agree with both Yolanda and Sarah. It's very
8:51
Speaker 6: remote and fairly isolated, but we all are connected. In
8:58
Speaker 6: the national park, I like to describe it as three biomes.
9:02
Speaker 6: There's the mountains, the Chisos Mountains, and then there's the
9:06
Speaker 6: open expanse of the desert. And then there's the river
9:09
Speaker 6: corridor that connects us all. So if you start at
9:15
Speaker 6: Yolanda's Ranch and drive the Chispa Road all the way
9:20
Speaker 6: through Presidio and to Terlingua and then up through Alpine
9:25
Speaker 6: and then Marfa, you can make a big loop. You
9:30
Speaker 6: can do Fort Davis and Sanderson. And so we're all connected.
9:33
Speaker 6: This has brought us together in so many ways. from
9:39
Speaker 6: learning about each other's businesses and lives, as well as
9:43
Speaker 6: participating in the community meetings, whether it's a town hall
9:48
Speaker 6: or a commissioner's meeting or a groundwater meeting. We're all
9:53
Speaker 6: working together to learn ways that we can delay the construction,
9:59
Speaker 6: which we prefer to call destruction, of this area that
10:02
Speaker 6: we love.
10:04
Speaker 10: We all have to continue agreeing with each other because
10:07
Speaker 10: everybody else before me said it way better than I
10:09
Speaker 10: think I will. But at the same time, a few
10:13
Speaker 10: days ago, I put it into perspective. I looked at
10:15
Speaker 10: all the population and in all of our six counties
10:19
Speaker 10: that are affected right now in the Big Bend sector.
10:21
Speaker 9: And there's like 23,000 people.
10:22
Speaker 10: You know how many square miles there is in those
10:25
Speaker 10: six counties? 23,000 square miles.
10:28
Speaker 9: Think about that.
10:29
Speaker 10: That's a one person per square mile. Like, could you
10:33
Speaker 10: imagine being anywhere that allows you to have that type
10:39
Speaker 10: of expanse? We're all connected by this region. Honestly, we
10:43
Speaker 10: all know what each other are doing. Because we love
10:47
Speaker 10: it out here. We love one another. And it's trampling
10:52
Speaker 10: on our freedoms. It's trampling on what we love. And
10:56
Speaker 10: this government overreach, it's destroying our way of life, but
11:00
Speaker 10: we're not going to let it. Um, and while I'll
11:03
Speaker 10: continue to say that, but at the same time, it's
11:06
Speaker 10: made this community bigger, better, stronger. And, uh, I can't
11:12
Speaker 10: say enough about the people, the place, the sunrises, the sunsets,
11:16
Speaker 10: the mountains, the open expanse, the plains.
11:19
Speaker 9: Um, this, this is a special place.
11:23
Speaker 10: And if you haven't been down here, um, You don't
11:26
Speaker 10: have to come because like Austin used to say, hey,
11:30
Speaker 10: come for the fun, but don't move here, please.
11:34
Speaker 9: We do love the visitors. We love having people down here.
11:37
Speaker 10: But you live out here for a reason and we
11:41
Speaker 10: share this place with one another because it's.
11:46
Speaker 9: Not any of ours, but it sure is ours to share.
11:49
Speaker 11: And the only thing I would add to that is,
11:53
Speaker 11: you know, you asked, what it would look like to
11:56
Speaker 11: people who haven't been here. And everybody's kind of hit
12:00
Speaker 11: that nail on the head. But it really is something
12:04
Speaker 11: that you can't understand until you see it in person.
12:09
Speaker 11: And my favorite other place in the world is the
12:12
Speaker 11: North Rim of the Grand Canyon. And I promise they
12:15
Speaker 11: have nothing on us, absolutely nothing. But we also, the
12:20
Speaker 11: beauty is here, but there's archeological sites There's historical sites.
12:25
Speaker 11: They're not paying any mind to those. They even started
12:29
Speaker 11: working on one of those, um, sites and were interrupted. Yolanda,
12:33
Speaker 11: I can't remember if it was by you or somebody else, um,
12:37
Speaker 11: out near you, but the scale of the destruction and
12:41
Speaker 11: the history and the things that we absolutely cannot replace,
12:45
Speaker 11: it's just, it's mind boggling. Um, And then everybody said
12:49
Speaker 11: this too about how we're all working together. And, you know,
12:53
Speaker 11: we may be different and love our isolation, but boy,
12:57
Speaker 11: you step on this anthill and you've got, you know,
13:02
Speaker 11: a lot to contend with. The thing that makes me
13:06
Speaker 11: feel really good about it, though, is this group isn't
13:10
Speaker 11: going away. These people across the country who have banded
13:14
Speaker 11: together to fight this wall, they're here to stay. They're
13:18
Speaker 11: here to stay, and the people are going to make
13:21
Speaker 11: their voices heard. And I think, you know, just at
13:23
Speaker 11: the end of the day, get this to stop.
13:26
Speaker 10: I don't work for the state park system anymore, which
13:29
Speaker 10: is why I can be on this podcast and talk
13:31
Speaker 10: as much shit as I want. Pardon my French. But
13:36
Speaker 10: I actually work for an animal rescue. We rescue dogs
13:41
Speaker 10: out of shelters, one tail at a time. We cover
13:45
Speaker 10: an area about the size of South Carolina, even bigger
13:48
Speaker 10: than our six sexers. So we save a lot of
13:52
Speaker 10: shelter animals and abandoned animals. And probably that's what 40
13:58
Speaker 10: to 50 to 60 hours of my week is. And
14:00
Speaker 10: then the other waking hours is fighting this.
14:04
Speaker 6: I said earlier that my husband and I have a
14:06
Speaker 6: bicycle shop and we worked in the river outfitting business.
14:10
Speaker 6: We work six to seven days a week.
14:14
Speaker 11: All day long.
14:16
Speaker 6: And again, using that time, especially when people come through
14:20
Speaker 6: the shop, we have displays about what's going on in
14:24
Speaker 6: the area and we encourage people to voice their their
14:32
Speaker 6: opinions about what's going on and contact representatives. We use
14:38
Speaker 6: our space to show photographs of some of the destruction,
14:43
Speaker 6: as well as to help raise money for these organizations
14:46
Speaker 6: that are working so hard to stay on top of
14:49
Speaker 6: what's going on.
14:51
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm a cattle rancher, as I mentioned. I manage
14:55
Speaker 5: all my family's ranches. And so I work every day
15:01
Speaker 5: outside in the desert. I work with Mother Nature. I
15:06
Speaker 5: work with the animals, with droughts, with floods, the rain,
15:11
Speaker 5: any type of environmental issue you can think of, 100
15:17
Speaker 5: plus degrees outside or freezing outside. So my everyday working
15:23
Speaker 5: life and what it has been for the past almost
15:26
Speaker 5: 10 years has just been me in the desert, me
15:30
Speaker 5: and the animals. And that is my job and carrying
15:33
Speaker 5: my family's legacy. It has been my responsibility to be
15:37
Speaker 5: a steward of the land and continue that and teach
15:41
Speaker 5: my children how to take care and live out here,
15:44
Speaker 5: take care of the desert, the ranches and the animals,
15:48
Speaker 5: what it means, what you can use the plants for.
15:51
Speaker 5: So yeah, that's basically what I do all day. And
15:56
Speaker 5: then now I am fighting the border wall as the
16:00
Speaker 5: regional director, spending a lot of my time behind a
16:02
Speaker 5: computer now.
16:05
Speaker 2: But here we are.
16:06
Speaker 11: Yeah, I'll say one thing. None of these folks work
16:10
Speaker 11: nine to five. I mean, I'm retired and that's very
16:12
Speaker 11: fortunate because I have some more time to help on
16:16
Speaker 11: the no wall fight. But none of these people work
16:20
Speaker 11: nine to five. I can't even imagine the number of
16:23
Speaker 11: miles that Yolanda drives or you know, Scott used to
16:27
Speaker 11: do when he was with the state park or Crystal
16:29
Speaker 11: on their river trips. It's phenomenal. It's mind boggling. I
16:34
Speaker 11: do know where Crystal lives and you have to love
16:36
Speaker 11: it out here to drive from where she lives, you know,
16:40
Speaker 11: into Terlingua. It may be like seven miles, but it
16:42
Speaker 11: can take you up to 30, 40 minutes. So, you know,
16:46
Speaker 11: these people are working before and after work and during
16:49
Speaker 11: the working hours.
16:51
Speaker 4: Well, y'all, like, national borders everywhere in the world are
16:55
Speaker 4: deeply political constructs with complicated histories. And the U.S.-Mexico border
17:00
Speaker 4: is no different. I mean, it's been a political talking
17:02
Speaker 4: point our entire lives. Can you talk to us about
17:05
Speaker 4: what it's like to live somewhere that is so regularly
17:08
Speaker 4: charged by political narrative and policy battles? And tell us, like,
17:14
Speaker 4: why that's different now.
17:16
Speaker 5: Well, historically, the river down here in this part in
17:19
Speaker 5: the Big Bend sector... it's been so isolated and desolate
17:24
Speaker 5: that we don't have many crossings here, as you mentioned. So,
17:27
Speaker 5: you know, for many years up until almost recently, like,
17:32
Speaker 5: and still actually today, the communities on the river are
17:35
Speaker 5: on both sides. So you see Presidio and Ohinaga sharing
17:39
Speaker 5: a river. You see Boquillas, like we are one community.
17:44
Speaker 5: So politically, you know, not until the first border wall
17:48
Speaker 5: came through, it wasn't something that, we even thought about
17:51
Speaker 5: for us and my family and the ranchers, because we've
17:53
Speaker 5: always just been safe out there. We've been alone and
17:57
Speaker 5: we've been one community with the other side of the
18:00
Speaker 5: border that was Pilates, Mexico. And it wasn't until, I.
18:06
Speaker 2: Guess, the Bush administration.
18:09
Speaker 5: He built a failed billion dollar wall that's actually on
18:13
Speaker 5: my aunt's property. And that's when we started seeing, for
18:17
Speaker 5: us anyways in this region, it being more politically charged.
18:22
Speaker 5: And even then at that time, I don't believe anyone
18:25
Speaker 5: looked at the Big Bend region close to the national
18:27
Speaker 5: park and said, we need a wall here. So I
18:32
Speaker 5: personally felt a little separated from what was going on
18:35
Speaker 5: in other places. I mean, me and my family never
18:38
Speaker 5: thought in 100 years they would try to put a
18:40
Speaker 5: wall where we are because it just doesn't make sense
18:43
Speaker 5: at all.
18:44
Speaker 8: It's like you.
18:45
Speaker 5: Go down there. I even took the Border Patrol agents,
18:49
Speaker 5: the head director, infrastructure project directors of the Border Wall Project.
18:54
Speaker 5: And they said, Yolanda, I see what you're talking about,
18:56
Speaker 5: because that's how ridiculous it looks in person.
19:01
Speaker 8: When you get off of a map.
19:03
Speaker 5: We did see when Kirstie Noem was a Homeland Security Director,
19:08
Speaker 5: we started seeing striker military vehicles, the army lining the border.
19:12
Speaker 5: Still today, I'm passed by army people, like our borders
19:17
Speaker 5: completely militarized now. So it was like a very isolated,
19:23
Speaker 5: safe place. And now I have to worry about running
19:25
Speaker 5: into you know, a striker military vehicle hitting me on
19:29
Speaker 5: the way to the ranch. And most of the time
19:33
Speaker 5: I find them napping in their trucks because it's so
19:36
Speaker 5: quiet and they don't have anything to do. I see
19:42
Speaker 5: them on, you know, just there's actually a weightlifting area where,
19:47
Speaker 5: you know, they're bored and they're lifting weights because they're
19:50
Speaker 5: no emergency on the border. Yet our military is deployed
19:54
Speaker 5: in our own homes, in our own backyards, filling up
19:59
Speaker 5: all the hotel rooms in these small rural communities, like
20:02
Speaker 5: already causing damage to tourism. So it's been, I mean,
20:07
Speaker 5: interesting watching it in real time. I was sitting on
20:12
Speaker 5: our back porch less than half a mile from Mexico
20:16
Speaker 5: on the Rio Grande reading that we were in a
20:19
Speaker 5: state of emergency and within the week we had military
20:24
Speaker 5: driving in and showing up at our property. I even
20:29
Speaker 5: had military personnel drive through our gate in the middle
20:34
Speaker 5: of the night because they were just messing around, driving
20:37
Speaker 5: really fast. So it's been a really interesting experience watching
20:42
Speaker 5: it in real time, not on the news, saying like, oh,
20:45
Speaker 5: we have an emergency. Oh, there's the military. Now we're
20:48
Speaker 5: getting a wall. It's been really crazy. And at the
20:53
Speaker 5: very least, such a disturbance to our peace or what
20:57
Speaker 5: was peaceful.
20:59
Speaker 10: This should make every taxpayer mad. And I'm only going
21:02
Speaker 10: to put it into perspective. I won't put names under
21:04
Speaker 10: the bus.
21:04
Speaker 9: I live in Marfa, which.
21:07
Speaker 10: Everybody pooh-poohs Marfa just because it's fun to do it anyway.
21:11
Speaker 9: And I get it.
21:11
Speaker 11: We're a little art community.
21:13
Speaker 10: Everybody's a little bougie, whatever. I live in an old
21:16
Speaker 10: train warehouse, which is fun. Anyway, but I go down
21:22
Speaker 10: the street and I have the U.S. military staying at
21:27
Speaker 10: a place that costs $ 285 a night minimum. And they've
21:32
Speaker 10: been staying there full-time since February of 2026.
21:35
Speaker 9: They use the pool. They use the weight room.
21:38
Speaker 10: All the things that people in this community can't afford
21:40
Speaker 10: to use, our U.S. military is occupying that hotel. And
21:44
Speaker 10: they're not paying hotel taxes. They're not helping the community.
21:49
Speaker 10: And they're showing up to the pool and drinking at
21:51
Speaker 10: the bars.
21:52
Speaker 9: And it's like, what is that? What are they defending?
21:57
Speaker 10: And when we asked them, what are you doing here?
22:00
Speaker 10: He said, we're here to help this place. We're here
22:03
Speaker 10: to defend you guys. And I'm like, defend me from what?
22:09
Speaker 11: Art critics?
22:10
Speaker 10: I mean, certainly it should make any taxpayer mad of
22:14
Speaker 10: what's being wasted down here. These guys cruise around all day,
22:18
Speaker 10: all night and do nothing. And I'm not dogging the military.
22:22
Speaker 10: I'm dogging the decision. And That's, and there's, it's going
22:28
Speaker 10: on all over this region and it's, it's despicable.
22:31
Speaker 2: I mean, it's going on all over the country, right?
22:33
Speaker 3: Like I go to Washington DC this week and there
22:36
Speaker 3: are a bunch of board national guardsmen just like walking around.
22:39
Speaker 2: It's like, what the hell are we doing?
22:41
Speaker 5: Really an insult on, I think our military service also,
22:45
Speaker 5: my sisters in the air force. And I mean, it's
22:48
Speaker 5: insulting to even separate them from their families, deploy them
22:53
Speaker 5: in the United States, separate them from their families. like
22:56
Speaker 5: they're off on a mission, but it's really there. There's
22:59
Speaker 5: no mission down here. There's nothing going on. But yeah,
23:04
Speaker 5: millions and millions, if not billions of our taxpayer dollars
23:08
Speaker 5: are going towards this.
23:09
Speaker 8: So I'm glad you said that, Scott.
23:11
Speaker 7: Yeah, it feels like an upside down world where before
23:15
Speaker 7: it was like, yeah, we're safe.
23:18
Speaker 8: We didn't even think about our safety.
23:20
Speaker 7: But people that don't live here, that don't work here,
23:23
Speaker 7: they're talking about how it's a scary place.
23:28
Speaker 8: We have to put up physical barriers. And so it's.
23:31
Speaker 7: Created a narrative that is not what reality was. And
23:36
Speaker 7: now in addition to people thinking that we need a wall, well,
23:40
Speaker 7: now people think that well, if they needed a wall,
23:44
Speaker 7: then it probably wasn't safe.
23:46
Speaker 8: So why am I gonna visit there?
23:47
Speaker 7: There's so many other national parks, so many other places
23:50
Speaker 7: that people could go on a trip. And it's really
23:55
Speaker 7: messing up our tourism and the economy that drives on
23:59
Speaker 7: the tourism. And while contractors coming in, the military coming in,
24:06
Speaker 7: that's not an investment in our communities and in this
24:10
Speaker 7: long-term economic development. Anybody that thinks it might be good
24:16
Speaker 7: that it could bring in money to our towns or
24:18
Speaker 7: to our county, that's just a very short-sighted view and
24:22
Speaker 7: it hurts us in the long run.
24:23
Speaker 11: And you know, when you were talking about being politically charged,
24:26
Speaker 11: I mean, it all goes back to the false pretense
24:30
Speaker 11: that we need a wall because of the border crisis
24:33
Speaker 11: down here. It's all bogus. There is no border crisis.
24:37
Speaker 11: The border crisis right now are the construction workers or
24:41
Speaker 11: as Crystal said, the destruction workers. But yeah, I think
24:44
Speaker 11: that's really important. This isn't needed. It's all about our
24:48
Speaker 11: president rewarding the people that are funding him for his
24:52
Speaker 11: political office. And it's not doing this community any good whatsoever.
24:57
Speaker 11: It's harming it significantly. One of our Texas state senators
25:03
Speaker 11: has a bill called the Fed Act, which is supposed
25:07
Speaker 11: to protect landowners specifically in West Texas from federal overreach.
25:13
Speaker 11: Yet he hasn't said a word about the overreach that's
25:17
Speaker 11: happening here. So yeah, I better stop because it really
25:21
Speaker 11: makes me mad.
25:22
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I was going to ask y'all to like,
25:24
Speaker 3: let's get more mad, right? Because I mean, like Jules
25:27
Speaker 3: and I have also been talking to, you know, fellow
25:29
Speaker 3: Texans who are dealing with data centers in their damn
25:33
Speaker 3: backyards now, like.
25:34
Speaker 2: All over the place.
25:35
Speaker 3: It feels like local control is just being ripped away
25:40
Speaker 3: and people are just having, whether it's a border wall,
25:43
Speaker 3: whether it's a data center or some other, you know,
25:46
Speaker 3: like polluting piece of crap in their community. Like we
25:49
Speaker 3: get no say in it. And they're, they're just steamrolling everybody.
25:54
Speaker 3: Cause I wanted to sort of ask y'all, you know,
25:55
Speaker 3: like if you could speak to the non Texans who
25:57
Speaker 3: are listening to this, right? Like, you know, we all
26:01
Speaker 3: know that there's a speaking of narratives, right? There's a
26:03
Speaker 3: narrative in this country. that makes a lot of people
26:07
Speaker 3: assume that like Texans would be for this, that Texans
26:10
Speaker 3: would be like shooting their guns into the air and say, yeah,
26:12
Speaker 3: let's build a big border wall. Like, what do you
26:14
Speaker 3: want to say to people who think that about you?
26:17
Speaker 11: Come down and see for yourself. It's nothing like the
26:19
Speaker 11: narrative that you're hearing. Nothing at all.
26:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, the data center border wall is so correlated.
26:27
Speaker 5: It's the same fight that everybody's been starting to fight
26:31
Speaker 5: across the country. So, you know, the only difference is
26:34
Speaker 5: that You know, say it's Boise, Idaho, and the only
26:38
Speaker 5: difference is the president saying there's only rapists and murderers
26:43
Speaker 5: coming to Boise, Idaho. We need a wall around it
26:48
Speaker 5: and not a data center. You know, it's the same correlation.
26:50
Speaker 5: So we were just painted, you know, this black. We
26:54
Speaker 5: were already painted black. And that's why people are not
26:57
Speaker 5: really opening their eyes to the issue. But it is
27:00
Speaker 5: exactly like you said. It's just like having a data center.
27:03
Speaker 5: show up in your community and taking your natural resources, jobs,
27:08
Speaker 5: you know, all of the above. So to speak to
27:12
Speaker 5: like the greater America, you know, one thing I've been
27:15
Speaker 5: saying is that they declared a national emergency to waive
27:19
Speaker 5: laws to do this project. Who's to say they're not
27:22
Speaker 5: going to do it in Boise, Idaho? Who's to say
27:25
Speaker 5: they're not going to say, oh, we see this emergency here.
27:28
Speaker 5: Let's deploy the army and build and do whatever we want.
27:32
Speaker 5: to these Americans. Like, forget American sovereignty. Forget whatever existed.
27:38
Speaker 5: It's disgusting, the overreach. So I think everyone in America
27:44
Speaker 5: should be upset about what they're doing to abuse this
27:47
Speaker 5: power to take advantage of American citizens, Texans.
27:52
Speaker 8: It's not right.
27:54
Speaker 2: Weren't we raised.
27:56
Speaker 3: to hate this stuff like weren't didn't we all learn
27:59
Speaker 3: in school that this is exactly the kind of thing
28:02
Speaker 3: that is good red-blooded americans we should despise and fight
28:06
Speaker 3: against and like you know you got ice agents in
28:10
Speaker 3: unmarked vehicles wearing masks driving all over people's property being
28:14
Speaker 3: like you know people peaceful protesters like i mean just
28:18
Speaker 3: the the the violation of rights and property and everything
28:22
Speaker 3: is just uh it's just it's mind-boggling Right.
28:26
Speaker 7: In Terrell County, there's a $ 2. 6 billion contract over the
28:32
Speaker 7: Big Bend 5 project, which spans all of Terrell County,
28:35
Speaker 7: some of Brewster, some of Val Verde.
28:38
Speaker 8: It's not the 30-foot wall.
28:39
Speaker 7: It's four and six-foot tall steel bollards. That's the vehicle
28:46
Speaker 7: barrier system to stop vehicles from crossing. This is on
28:50
Speaker 7: the other side of canyons. The river, the wild and
28:53
Speaker 7: scenic river right there it's um it's canyons and so
28:57
Speaker 7: they're putting this vehicle barrier up saying it's to stop
29:00
Speaker 7: vehicles but vehicles aren't crossing and people can go under
29:05
Speaker 7: it so it's not stopping people it just doesn't make
29:08
Speaker 7: sense and it's a waste of taxpayer money and it
29:10
Speaker 7: just does not make any sense but it's back to
29:13
Speaker 7: this narrative that like if somebody says that we need
29:16
Speaker 7: it then i guess like half the country is going
29:19
Speaker 7: to believe it.
29:20
Speaker 6: Just my take on it is you know my life
29:22
Speaker 6: here is We spent a lot of time on the
29:24
Speaker 6: river and never had a bad experience. Usually people were hungry, starving,
29:31
Speaker 6: needed water. But just the thought of losing access to
29:37
Speaker 6: our river, the river.
29:40
Speaker 8: We share with Mexico, it.
29:43
Speaker 6: Is appalling to me that we wouldn't have access. We
29:48
Speaker 6: want border security, but we were already secure before. And
29:55
Speaker 6: a lot of that was because there's several villages along
29:59
Speaker 6: the river prior to 9-11 it was an open border
30:03
Speaker 6: and you could go across and have lunch at the
30:06
Speaker 6: villages and people would share news about what was going
30:10
Speaker 6: on if there was something bad going on we would
30:14
Speaker 6: learn from the people that lived there and then when
30:17
Speaker 6: they after 9-11 the border was shut and then we
30:22
Speaker 6: were cut off from our friends we still get together
30:26
Speaker 6: once a year on Mother's Day and And we go
30:30
Speaker 6: to the river and bands play on each side. They
30:33
Speaker 6: take turns, a band in Mexico and a band in
30:35
Speaker 6: the United States, and they take turns playing. And the
30:38
Speaker 6: families come together and we eat, we sing.
30:42
Speaker 11: We laugh, we dance.
30:43
Speaker 6: And we get to do that one day a year.
30:45
Speaker 6: And to have the idea that they're going to come
30:50
Speaker 6: in with the, whether it's vehicle barriers or walls, it
30:55
Speaker 6: just cuts us off more from friends and family that
30:59
Speaker 6: live in Mexico. You know, I just agree with the
31:04
Speaker 6: sheriffs and the border patrol that can talk to us
31:07
Speaker 6: that they're doing a good job already and that just
31:13
Speaker 6: more of the technology that they can use to detect
31:20
Speaker 6: people crossing and being able to get to them. They
31:24
Speaker 6: could use more drones and maybe a helicopter. That sure
31:27
Speaker 6: doesn't cost $ 7. 46 billion, which is how much they're trying
31:32
Speaker 6: to spend on 517 miles of riverfront in Texas. And
31:39
Speaker 6: just the whole idea of landowners along the river, farmers, ranchers,
31:44
Speaker 6: losing access.
31:45
Speaker 11: To the water.
31:46
Speaker 6: Again, we're all saying it doesn't make sense. And we
31:51
Speaker 6: think we're pretty logical people. So I just want them
31:55
Speaker 6: to slow down. Think about what they're doing and start
32:00
Speaker 6: believing in the rule of law again. Yeah.
32:03
Speaker 5: Speaking on the border security, we have, as a renter,
32:06
Speaker 5: I got a new four-wheeler. I was chasing cows near
32:09
Speaker 5: the border in the middle of nowhere. And Border Patrol
32:14
Speaker 5: knows me. They know my truck. They know pretty much
32:16
Speaker 5: what I do. But this was new to them. They
32:18
Speaker 5: were there within 10, 15 minutes. found me in the
32:22
Speaker 5: middle of nowhere and was like, oh, it's just you, Yolanda.
32:25
Speaker 8: All right, have a good day.
32:26
Speaker 5: Like that is a response time already.
32:29
Speaker 8: And I was going really fast on that four wheeler.
32:32
Speaker 5: So, you know, just the idea of them being able
32:35
Speaker 5: to come in and take land away from landowners to
32:38
Speaker 5: ruin this entire region when we already have a very
32:42
Speaker 5: secure border. I mean, if you look at CBP, Customs
32:47
Speaker 5: and Border Patrol Instagram right now, they just posted a
32:51
Speaker 5: video that says the border is secure. Like even they're
32:54
Speaker 5: admitting it at this point.
32:56
Speaker 8: It's comical.
32:57
Speaker 5: But they are getting away with this at a national
33:00
Speaker 5: level because again, it's like for me, and I've said
33:04
Speaker 5: this from the beginning, I'm very vocal about it. I
33:07
Speaker 5: think it's a very racist agenda. It's very anti-Latino. It's
33:11
Speaker 5: very anti-Brown. That's why we can see ICE getting away
33:15
Speaker 5: with kidnapping people, murdering them in the streets. because they
33:18
Speaker 5: pushed this anti-Latino narrative for a long time now. Since
33:24
Speaker 5: Clinton era, Bush did it, and even Obama did it,
33:28
Speaker 5: and it's getting worse and worse. So, you know, people
33:31
Speaker 5: are turning a blind eye to it. And it's really
33:34
Speaker 5: frustrating because just as Crystal described, like, it's not what
33:38
Speaker 5: it seems like here. We are communities. We are families.
33:42
Speaker 5: We are one on the river. And it's really deserving
33:47
Speaker 5: to watch in real time how people are being treated
33:51
Speaker 5: just for this agenda. And honestly, in the very end,
33:54
Speaker 5: it's just so people can make some money at top.
33:58
Speaker 5: It's for these large contract deals. It's to sell beds
34:02
Speaker 5: to detention centers. It's all of the above. And we
34:06
Speaker 5: are just a byproduct of this huge anti-Latino showboat.
34:13
Speaker 11: You know, sometimes people ask if they haven't been down
34:17
Speaker 11: here on some of these chats and all, you know,
34:19
Speaker 11: is it safe down there? Do you feel safe down there?
34:22
Speaker 11: I said, we feel perfectly safe. We haven't locked our
34:25
Speaker 11: door in, you know, 13 years. We don't even know
34:27
Speaker 11: where the key is. But, you know, then I also say,
34:31
Speaker 11: I feel a lot safer here than I do going
34:34
Speaker 11: to Dallas or I do going to DC or some
34:37
Speaker 11: other place. This place is safe. And, you know, if
34:41
Speaker 11: you took the amount and Yolanda, you can probably correct me,
34:45
Speaker 11: but somebody did a calculation of the amount they're paying,
34:50
Speaker 11: the seven however many billion dollars versus the number of
34:53
Speaker 11: people who have crossed. It comes out to something like $ 500, 000
34:57
Speaker 11: a person or $ 50, 000 a person. I'm not a mathematician,
35:02
Speaker 11: but it's ridiculous that that's where our taxpayers' money is going.
35:06
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's definitely the higher number. I believe it's like
35:10
Speaker 5: more over a million a person per apprehension.
35:13
Speaker 11: Okay.
35:14
Speaker 5: But it is $ 14 million a mile to build this
35:17
Speaker 5: border wall.
35:18
Speaker 8: In our region.
35:19
Speaker 5: That's our taxpayer dollars. So my family's property, we're going
35:23
Speaker 5: to have, I believe, a new fence of 30-foot bollard
35:28
Speaker 5: wall that's costing taxpayers, you know, on our property alone,
35:33
Speaker 5: rough math, almost $ 100 million.
35:35
Speaker 4: Okay.
35:36
Speaker 5: Just on our property. That's our new fence. So the
35:41
Speaker 5: cows aren't going to go to Mexico anymore, but it
35:43
Speaker 5: is actually ridiculous what is happening and how much money
35:47
Speaker 5: is being spent.
35:49
Speaker 8: Isn't it 17 million per mile, right? Is that right?
35:53
Speaker 7: I think that's the number, 17 million per mile. And
35:56
Speaker 7: the entire county budget for Terrell County is less, just
36:01
Speaker 7: less than 2.5 million for the entire year for the.
36:07
Speaker 8: Mile.
36:08
Speaker 4: The last time I was there in Terlingua, you know,
36:09
Speaker 4: I realized that water is scarce, you know, as a resource,
36:13
Speaker 4: it's something that y'all could use more of. Sometimes power
36:17
Speaker 4: would go out or power did not seem like it was,
36:19
Speaker 4: you know, necessarily in all places, right? So when y'all
36:24
Speaker 4: talk about these huge numbers going on in terms of,
36:29
Speaker 4: I just think about how better that could be used
36:32
Speaker 4: within your communities, you know, to make better the lives
36:35
Speaker 4: of the people who choose to live there and it
36:38
Speaker 4: instead it goes to this god-awful cause that helps no
36:42
Speaker 4: one hurts everyone who lives there and is completely unnecessary
36:45
Speaker 4: and ridiculous and if you just like were to look
36:47
Speaker 4: at the landscape of where they are intending to place
36:50
Speaker 4: it like you mentioned yolanda like it doesn't make sense
36:53
Speaker 4: like vehicle barriers on the other sides of canyons i
36:56
Speaker 4: mean it just all sounds like a giant shit show
36:58
Speaker 4: and uh i'm sorry that everyone's having to live through
37:00
Speaker 4: this and and uh you know, and deal with it. And,
37:03
Speaker 4: you know, in terms of like how the community of
37:04
Speaker 4: Terlingua is, man, like I, I remember being there last year,
37:08
Speaker 4: there's the boathouse and there's a starlight theater and there's
37:11
Speaker 4: a DB's rustic iron. And, you know, I was reading
37:15
Speaker 4: somewhere in the Texas Tribune, there are actual signs that
37:18
Speaker 4: all these businesses have put up where like, if you
37:20
Speaker 4: are working with the contractors, we don't want your business here,
37:23
Speaker 4: please take it elsewhere and you're not welcome. And I
37:27
Speaker 4: just think it's like incredible the way that the businesses
37:30
Speaker 4: and the people who live out there have sort of
37:32
Speaker 4: been galvanized by this entire ordeal. As a wrap-up question here,
37:37
Speaker 4: where do things stand now, like upcoming events? What can people, listeners,
37:43
Speaker 4: do to get involved? And what's the current status now?
37:46
Speaker 4: Because I understand that, wasn't there, there was a, the
37:49
Speaker 4: actual construction was paused. And if I'm, I think I
37:53
Speaker 4: remember reading like today, like the pause ceased or something.
37:55
Speaker 4: Like I just, can we get a, an update on
37:58
Speaker 4: where things stand at this point and how listeners can,
38:00
Speaker 4: can help.
38:00
Speaker 11: You know, it's.
38:01
Speaker 7: Really easy to get mad and just like, it's nonsense, but,
38:05
Speaker 7: but the way that, that we've come together has been
38:09
Speaker 7: really great. We're, we're stronger than we thought we ever
38:13
Speaker 7: needed to be. We didn't know we were going to
38:15
Speaker 7: need to be this strong, but the businesses, there's a
38:17
Speaker 7: business network. We come together, we've talked about all of this.
38:20
Speaker 7: And the thing that we, that has helped us, I
38:24
Speaker 7: know you want an update on, on the construction, but,
38:28
Speaker 7: but what we're working on is fighting for tourism. That's,
38:36
Speaker 7: that's helped kind of shift the narrative because yes, we're
38:38
Speaker 7: fighting against the wall and all of that, but we're
38:40
Speaker 7: also fighting for something we're fighting. Crystal reminds us all
38:43
Speaker 7: the time. We're fighting for what we love. The businesses
38:46
Speaker 7: are fighting for tourism. So the thing that people can
38:49
Speaker 7: do is to keep coming. keep coming to Big Ben,
38:53
Speaker 7: support the local businesses, come to the parks, even watch
38:57
Speaker 7: what's going on if construction resumes. But there's a big
39:01
Speaker 7: tourism campaign called Big Love for Big Ben that reminds
39:04
Speaker 7: people that when you come to Big Ben, you're supporting
39:07
Speaker 7: these businesses and these independently owned restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, motels.
39:15
Speaker 7: So that's in addition to writing representatives and a lot
39:20
Speaker 7: of other things that they can do, a really huge
39:22
Speaker 7: thing would be to keep visiting Big Bend.
39:25
Speaker 5: We just took a trip to Washington, D.C. We talked
39:28
Speaker 5: to lawmakers. We were trying to wrap our minds around,
39:30
Speaker 5: you know, what are they saying? What are they doing?
39:33
Speaker 5: And the biggest thing that stuck out was all of
39:36
Speaker 5: them have said they've received phone calls.
39:39
Speaker 8: They've heard from their constituents. And it's huge.
39:43
Speaker 5: And no matter where you are outside of Texas to
39:46
Speaker 5: keep calling your representatives and let them know that, you know,
39:50
Speaker 5: putting a wall or any infrastructure in Big Bend will
39:53
Speaker 5: hurt you as well. And it's not needed. And that's
39:56
Speaker 5: not where you want to spend your taxpayer dollars. And
39:59
Speaker 5: we're working on some bills and things there to hopefully
40:03
Speaker 5: halt that. And on top of that, our coalition, Conserve
40:08
Speaker 5: Big Bend, we started a landowner coalition and we have
40:14
Speaker 5: almost over half of the landowners on the border in
40:17
Speaker 5: our coalition who is against the wall. And we just
40:21
Speaker 5: filed a lawsuit a couple weeks ago against the federal government.
40:27
Speaker 5: So it's landowners versus DHS. And we're taking it all
40:32
Speaker 5: the way to the top. It was filed in DC.
40:35
Speaker 5: And we're hoping to see another TRO there. And hopefully
40:41
Speaker 5: we can halt construction. We are challenging the waivers. Letting
40:46
Speaker 5: them know that, you know, they can't just come in
40:48
Speaker 5: and claim a national security and take away all of
40:51
Speaker 5: our rights. So yeah, aside from other small events we're
40:56
Speaker 5: working on. And donating to all the people who are
40:59
Speaker 5: working hard. It's not just No Big Bend Wall, but
41:02
Speaker 5: there's so many people in Terlingua, all over.
41:06
Speaker 8: Anyone who even.
41:06
Speaker 5: Shares an Instagram post or Facebook post and talks about
41:10
Speaker 5: what is happening helps us. This is all really good
41:16
Speaker 5: and really helpful.
41:17
Speaker 6: There's another hearing tomorrow in El Paso. So some of
41:21
Speaker 6: the people originally scheduled for this podcast are in El
41:26
Speaker 6: Paso with the lawyers getting ready for that tomorrow. And
41:30
Speaker 6: hopefully that will pause it again. We have not seen
41:36
Speaker 6: construction resume, but there are people watching for that. I
41:41
Speaker 6: think they're just still waiting, but they're still not talking
41:47
Speaker 6: to us. That's been a big thing, the lack of transparency.
41:50
Speaker 6: has been really aggravating. If they would just talk to
41:54
Speaker 6: us and we could give them ideas on alternatives for
41:57
Speaker 6: what's going on, that would help. In Terlingua, from February,
42:02
Speaker 6: we started having rallies on Saturdays, and this Saturday is
42:07
Speaker 6: our 32nd rally. People come from all over and join us.
42:13
Speaker 6: We've had people from New York and California and Florida, Atlanta,
42:17
Speaker 6: all over Texas come and join us. And then in
42:20
Speaker 6: the big cities on Sundays, like Houston, Dallas, they're having
42:27
Speaker 6: rallies there as well. So the moment they started bulldozing
42:32
Speaker 6: at Santa Elena Canyon, finally the news broke out to
42:37
Speaker 6: a bigger audience, even though we had been chipping away
42:40
Speaker 6: at that for six months. So more people are aware,
42:45
Speaker 6: but we just keep Keep spreading the word.
42:48
Speaker 10: Yeah, and being able to attend the ones in Terlingua.
42:51
Speaker 9: At the rally at the Y is always special. That
42:55
Speaker 9: kicked it all off.
42:57
Speaker 10: And the bigger point here, and that was amazing, and
43:02
Speaker 10: what's happened after that has been even more amazing. But
43:05
Speaker 10: if you're talking about how can people help right now,
43:09
Speaker 10: not only attending those rallies at the Y, but what
43:12
Speaker 10: we've been doing. And everybody on this call and everybody's
43:14
Speaker 10: in El Paso, I talked about how big this area is.
43:18
Speaker 10: The people on this call and the other people, our
43:20
Speaker 10: constituents out here, have been driving to county meetings, city councils,
43:25
Speaker 10: groundwater meetings.
43:26
Speaker 9: You go to every single one of those.
43:28
Speaker 10: And I think every American should be paying attention to
43:31
Speaker 10: what's going on down here.
43:32
Speaker 9: I know people are objecting to.
43:34
Speaker 10: AI data centers, but looking at the gas industry, Paying $ 4. 50
43:38
Speaker 10: a gallon, we've got people that are retirees thriving on
43:42
Speaker 10: Social Security, people that are part-time workers, part-time anything, seasonal workers,
43:47
Speaker 10: because this is all tourism. People are showing up to
43:50
Speaker 10: these county meetings and holding the people we put in office,
43:54
Speaker 10: holding them to account to do what we ask them
43:57
Speaker 10: to do.
43:58
Speaker 9: Because it's bullshit. I'm sorry. You can bleep that one out.
44:02
Speaker 9: I mean, it's bullshit. I keep saying it. It's all right, man.
44:07
Speaker 9: Go for it.
44:07
Speaker 6: Let it fly.
44:07
Speaker 10: It's bullshit that they keep going and they're not listening to.
44:15
Speaker 10: We have the county commissioners probably scared to object to
44:19
Speaker 10: anything when we show up with 150 people that drove
44:22
Speaker 10: from all over the place. Like last week, I mean,
44:26
Speaker 10: we are calling people out that have been sitting in
44:28
Speaker 10: a Lazy Boy, enjoying their county judge position, their commissioner position.
44:33
Speaker 9: Their city council, mayor.
44:36
Speaker 10: People that just thought this was going to be easy
44:39
Speaker 10: and they can just check the mark and say, just
44:42
Speaker 10: check the box and say, hey, yeah, y'all go ahead
44:45
Speaker 10: and we're just going to go bulldozer here because nobody
44:48
Speaker 10: lives out here because like I said, 23,000 square miles
44:51
Speaker 10: with 23,000 people. Oh yeah, this isn't like a city
44:55
Speaker 10: full of liberal Dems or something that are going to
44:58
Speaker 10: object to everything.
44:59
Speaker 6: It's us.
45:00
Speaker 9: And we're pissed. And we're going to keep showing up.
45:03
Speaker 10: And that's what everybody, not only in the state of Texas,
45:06
Speaker 10: but definitely in the Big Bend region, is doing it
45:08
Speaker 10: on their own.
45:09
Speaker 9: And they're out.
45:09
Speaker 10: My wife's in El Paso, which is two and a
45:11
Speaker 10: half hours away right now. People in Terlingua are in
45:14
Speaker 10: El Paso right now, which is five hours for them.
45:18
Speaker 10: People just need to show up. And I think the
45:22
Speaker 10: gig is up. I mean, I'm done. I mean, I'm
45:24
Speaker 10: done with this crap.
45:31
Speaker 2: All right, gang, that's going to wrap things up for
45:34
Speaker 2: us today.
45:35
Speaker 3: Before we go, I do want to give you an
45:37
Speaker 3: update on this story that occurred after we recorded the
45:40
Speaker 3: conversation that you just heard. As Martha Piskowski reported on
45:44
Speaker 3: October 6th in Mother Jones, quote, federal judge Kathleen Cardone
45:49
Speaker 3: granted a preliminary injunction Friday to halt construction on the
45:53
Speaker 3: border wall in Texas's expansive Big Bend sector, including the
45:58
Speaker 3: national and state parks. Cardone read a brief order from
46:02
Speaker 3: the bench after hearing more than four hours of testimony
46:06
Speaker 3: from conservation groups and residents of the Big Bend region,
46:10
Speaker 3: known internationally for its dark night skies, abundant biodiversity, and
46:16
Speaker 3: rugged river canyons. Cardone said that the plaintiffs are likely
46:20
Speaker 3: to succeed on the merits in at least one of
46:23
Speaker 3: their claims and to suffer irreparable harm if construction continues.
46:28
Speaker 3: Her ruling stops border barrier construction in the entire Big
46:32
Speaker 3: Bend sector until the federal government complies with all applicable laws.
46:38
Speaker 3: The ruling applies to all of Big Bend National Park,
46:42
Speaker 3: Big Bend Ranch State Park, and the border along the
46:45
Speaker 3: Rio Grande and the rest of the sector. The injunction
46:48
Speaker 3: will remain in place while the court considers the lawsuit,
46:52
Speaker 3: which was filed in April.
46:54
Speaker 2: End quote.
46:55
Speaker 3: So the struggle is still very much not over, but
46:58
Speaker 3: that is huge news. And that is a huge win.
47:03
Speaker 3: I want to thank our guests in and around Terlingua, Texas,
47:07
Speaker 3: near Big Bend National Park, Yolanda Alvarado, Crystal Albright, Sarah Riza,
47:14
Speaker 3: Scott Whitener, and Sharon Reed Gavin. And if you want
47:18
Speaker 3: to learn more about what our guests are doing out
47:21
Speaker 3: there in West Texas, and you want to connect with them, please,
47:25
Speaker 3: Use the links that we provided in the show notes
47:27
Speaker 3: for this episode. And Jules, I actually wanted to ask
47:30
Speaker 3: if you could give our listeners the scoop on an
47:33
Speaker 3: event that is happening in Terlingua this month that you
47:36
Speaker 3: are a part of.
47:37
Speaker 2: Yes.
47:38
Speaker 4: This month from October 15th to 18th, I will be
47:42
Speaker 4: taking part in the Terlingua Music Bash. I believe there's
47:45
Speaker 4: about 40 different artists spread across half a dozen or
47:48
Speaker 4: so venues and which are different businesses there in Big Bend.
47:52
Speaker 4: It's all a benefit for school that's out there. I mean,
47:55
Speaker 4: it's all a really good cause. My friend John Whipple
47:57
Speaker 4: puts it on and it's all free admission. So if
48:00
Speaker 4: you're anywhere near Terlingua on the 15th through the 18th,
48:03
Speaker 4: come hang out. There's also like a Day of the
48:05
Speaker 4: Dead costume parade that we're going to do, which is
48:10
Speaker 4: also really super cool. But yeah, I can't wait to
48:12
Speaker 4: be back out in Big Bend. I can't wait to
48:13
Speaker 4: be back out in Terlingua. it's just a fantastic place,
48:17
Speaker 4: and you can't really describe how wonderful it is until
48:20
Speaker 4: you go there, and then you're just kind of at
48:22
Speaker 4: a loss for words. When folks say you have to
48:23
Speaker 4: be there yourself to experience it, and it has nothing
48:26
Speaker 4: on the north side of the Grand Canyon, I'm like, yeah,
48:30
Speaker 4: I've been there. I've been to the Grand Canyon, too.
48:31
Speaker 4: This place, Big Bend, is where I want to go
48:34
Speaker 4: every October for this music bash, and this will be
48:36
Speaker 4: my second year going, so.
48:38
Speaker 2: You heard it here first, folks.
48:40
Speaker 3: Our Texas co-hosts and guests say Grand Canyon ain't shit. So,
48:49
Speaker 3: you know, thank you so, so much again to all
48:52
Speaker 3: of our incredible guests. And thank you to Jules for
48:56
Speaker 3: helping us put this incredible panel together. And of course,
48:59
Speaker 3: I want to thank you all for listening. And I
49:01
Speaker 3: want to thank you for caring about this. We do
49:04
Speaker 3: this work for you, but we cannot do it without you.
49:08
Speaker 3: Working People is brought to you in partnership with In
49:10
Speaker 3: These Times Magazine and The Real News Network. The show
49:14
Speaker 3: is produced by the great Jules Taylor and is a
49:16
Speaker 3: proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.
49:10
Speaker 2: We'll see you next time. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.
49:40
Speaker 3: Check out our great podcasts like Under the Shadow and
49:43
Speaker 3: The Mark Steiner Show. And connect with us on social
49:46
Speaker 3: media and get updates on our reporting there. And help
49:50
Speaker 3: us do more work like this by going to therealnews.com
49:54
Speaker 3: forward slash donate and becoming a supporter today. I promise
49:57
Speaker 3: you guys, it really makes a difference. I'm Maximilian Alvarez.
50:02
Speaker 4: And I'm Jules Taylor.
50:04
Speaker 2: Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. Solidarity forever.
50:18
Speaker 12: When my face you no longer see, I live on, yes,
50:22
Speaker 12: I live on. Wherever we go, we are going to roll.
50:27
Speaker 11: The union on.
50:28
Speaker 12: The song, I live on, yes, I live on. Wherever hungry,
50:32
Speaker 12: hungry are we. Just as hungry as hungry can be.
50:37
Speaker 12: It's sung, I live on, yes, I live on. Where
50:42
Speaker 12: mean things are happening in this land, it's read or sung,
50:46
Speaker 12: I live on, yes, I live on. Wherever the books
50:49
Speaker 12: mean things are happening in this land, it's read, I
50:53
Speaker 12: live on, yes, I live on. Wherever the videotape of
50:59
Speaker 12: me is shown, I live on, yes, I live on.
51:03
Speaker 9: If I have help.
51:04
Speaker 12: To make this a better world to live in, I'll
51:08
Speaker 12: live on.
51:08
Speaker 2: Yes, I'll live on.
51:10
Speaker 12: When my body is silent and in some lonesome grave,
51:15
Speaker 12: I'll live on. Yes, I'll live on. When my songs
51:20
Speaker 12: and poems are read... I live on, yes, I live on.