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As a child, Michelle Serrano would take trips to Boca Chica with her grandmother. From her home in Brownsville, the drive ran east through Texas wetlands and countryside before landing on miles of beach, stretching far down the Gulf Coast just above the U.S.-Mexico border. They’d spend the day there, swimming, laying out — which didn’t cost anything, unlike at South Padre Island to the north. For them, it was the peoples’ beach.

Today, decades later, it’s hard for Serrano to believe those memories. It’s early December at Boca Chica Beach. A thick fog has settled over the sand dunes as Serrano pulls up the hood of her jacket to block the coastal wind. Already, she had seen four U.S. Border Patrol trucks driving along the sand — trucks she knows will slow down as the drivers stare at her with suspicion.

Two rocket launch pads loom behind her, actively under construction for Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starbase. There, more Border Patrol units sit.

“I’ve never seen this many Border Patrol trucks before,” Serrano said. “I mean, who would go out here now? We’d just be watched, suspected. It’s sad. It’s sad because this isn’t our beach anymore.”

Over the last few years, Serrano and other residents living at the southernmost tip of Texas have seen a dramatic shift in their environment. The Rio Grande Valley, which has for decades been home to border security, is now a land of increased militarization and border wall construction that has ramped up since President Donald Trump returned to office last January, including waiving a long list of national, state and local laws designed to protect the environment, wildlife and public access. Alarmed, critics have expressed deep concern about the escalating impact this effort has on the local ecology and waterways, and the growing limitations on those who once frequented public beaches, parks and the Rio Grande.

Experts warned that Trump’s second term in office would be worse for the environment than his last term, and now point to the Trump administration’s actions last year. The administration signed numerous waivers to bypass environmental, Indigenous rights and endangered species laws along the border to expedite border wall construction, including waiving all procurement and contract laws for the entire 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. The most recent waiver for the Rio Grande Valley was signed Dec. 9, bypassing nearly all environmental laws along the 100 mile stretch from Brownsville to Rio Grande City. Of the 61 waivers for the border signed since 2005, the Trump Administration signed 27 of them, all in 2025.

The One Big Beautiful Bill allocated $170 billion for immigration and border enforcement, including $46.5 billion for border wall construction, over four years and expanded the national defense area through 250 miles of the Rio Grande Valley, giving the Department of Defense jurisdiction over the land.

For Serrano and other residents, this means there’s even more reason to avoid the border. Serrano can barely remember a time that she spent at the Rio Grande without the presence of border security. And now, it would be impossible to get near it without drawing the attention of the roving Border Patrol units.

“It’s not really a river anymore. It’s like it’s lost its identity,”........

© Truthout