President 
Donald Trump's administration has begun building the U.S.-Mexico border wall through the Big Bend region of southwest Texas despite local pushback against the project. Customs and Border Protection told The Associated Press on Friday that installation of 30-foot panels was already underway. It is the first major construction in an area of the border where the administration's plans have met heavy opposition, PBS NewsHour reported.
Where is the wall going up? Panel installation is underway in a 47-mile stretch of Hudspeth County known as Big Bend 1, the agency said in its statement. That is one of five project areas making up the roughly 500-mile Big Bend region, which stretches from an area south of El Paso to Lake Amistad. The agency did not say when the panels went in, though a photo on a map on its website tracking wall construction showed a crane lifting one of the steel panels into place. The work is separate from a project in nearby Big Bend National Park, where construction has been temporarily suspended in an attempt at outreach to opponents.
How fast is construction moving? The agency said it is building an average of 12 miles of barriers a week across the 2,000-mile border, double the pace its head, Rodney Scott, cited earlier this year. The Big Bend start is a milestone in a $46 billion plan to line the border with walls, vehicle barriers, patrol roads and technology as the administration seeks to make good on a key campaign promise by Trump to finish the wall.
Who is opposing it? Landowners, environmental groups, business owners and ranchers who say the remote region is not a high-traffic area for illegal immigration have mounted concerted opposition, PBS NewsHour reported. Earlier this week, landowners, ranchers and business owners joined a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the region's landscape and heritage in suing to stop the plans. Clara Benson, a founder of the No Big Bend Wall Coalition, said the group would keep fighting across the region even as panels went up. "We will continue to fight for this land no matter what the outcome is," said Benson, who spoke from Washington, where coalition members were meeting with lawmakers.
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
