The Trump administration is rolling back environmental protections that would allow it to quickly construct a physical barrier across Big Bend National Park.
The administration has said that the president’s long-promised border wall would not include a physical wall in Big Bend National Park. But skeptics see a notice that the Department of Homeland Security published on the Federal Register earlier this week, waiving more than two dozen historic and environmental preservation laws, as a sign it might do so anyway.
“I’ve been to Big Bend, and I want to protect that area,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), who introduced a proposal to ban a border wall in the national park earlier this week, told NOTUS. “It’s a state and national treasure.”
Building a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border was a central part of President Donald Trump’s first campaign, pitched as an effort to prevent and deter undocumented immigrants from entering the country. Environmental advocates have worried that in the Big Bend region, which encompasses both the national park and Big Bend State Park, a physical wall or other changes could be harmful to the natural landscape.
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Despite the administration’s promises, some advocates and lawmakers have long been on edge about what Trump’s promised southern border wall would look like near the parks. In an online map, Customs and Border Protection originally designated a “technology only” wall for the part of the southern border that included Big Bend National Park, Marfa Public Radio reported in February. But then, CBP updated the map to show a “primary border wall system” along parts of the National Park as well, sparking concern from lawmakers and advocates.
There was enough pushback that CBP said the agency would only use technology and pave roads in the park instead of building a physical wall. In a letter to lawmakers on May 21, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott wrote that lighting would not be installed, and that border security measures would include “cameras and sensors, along with a limited number of low-profile vehicle barriers and patrol roads.”
In the meantime, CBP awarded a $1.7 billion contract on May 11 for a “border wall in Big Bend, Texas” fueling concerns over what the agency’s plans were for the park.
The latest notice in the Federal Register posted by DHS has advocates fretting that CBP might be changing its plans once again, or leaving the door open to doing so.
Cuellar said he sees the waivers as an effort to shield the administration from future litigation. He said that he pushed for an exception banning a border wall in Big Bend National Park when CBP said it wouldn’t build a physical wall but use vehicle barriers and technology instead. But in committee, Republicans rejected the effort.
“Almost everything we would say they were all an automatic no, no, no, no,” Cuellar said.
Bob Krumenaker, who served as the superintendent of Big Bend National Park for five years and now serves as the chair of Keep Big Bend Wild, an organization dedicated to protecting the undeveloped parts of the National Park, told NOTUS that because of the terrain of the park, including the desert, the park already has very few border crossings.
To Krumenaker, waiving the environmental and historic preservation laws essentially “eliminates all control and all accountability.”
“By waiving the laws, their words of ‘we care, we will be very careful,’ we don’t know if they have any meaning at all, because there’s absolutely no legal constraint on them at this point,” Kreumaker said. “So even if they say, ‘We’ll do environmental reviews, we will build whatever but we will do it in this location,’ they can change their mind, or the contractors can do anything they want to, anything they want to, and there’s no repercussions of that.”
Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told NOTUS on Thursday that although his office had been in communication with the administration, he’s uncertain what the exact plans are for the region — but he’s trying to get more information.
“We’ve been talking to the administration and local officials and stakeholders, and I’m unclear,” Cornyn said. “I thought they had an agreement not to build fencing on 3,000-foot cliffs, and then I’ve seen some information lately which makes me doubt that’s a done deal, so I’m a little unclear on where it stands and what their intentions are, but we’re going to reach out to the administration, trying to get some clarity on that.”
“Technology can do a lot,” Cornyn said. “You’re literally [talking about] 3,000-foot cliffs. You look down over the cliff, hopefully in a helicopter, and it’s the Rio Grande down there with wild horses, and nobody’s coming over that.”
In a statement to NOTUS, a spokesperson for CBP reiterated priorities for a “new border wall and detection technology” in the Big Bend sector, but also said that the efforts would be in the “areas adjacent” both to the National Park and the state park.
“While there are priorities for new border wall and detection technology in USBP’s Big Bend Sector, the combination of barriers, roads, and technology (cameras, infrared illuminators, and other detection technology) in the areas adjacent to the Big Bend National Park and State Park are still in the planning stages, while CBP focuses on other higher priority locations,” the spokesperson wrote.
The National Park Service did not respond to NOTUS’ request for comment. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department referred NOTUS to DHS.
The park does not have a congressional representative, as it’s part of Texas’ 23rd District, which is currently vacant. The seat was previously held by Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, who resigned from Congress in April after he admitted to having an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.
“We all have to step up, because Big Bend is for every American, for every Texan,” Rep. Greg Casar told NOTUS. “I think the vacancy in that district means that each and every one of us in the Texas delegation has to speak up because this just shouldn’t be a partisan one.”
Some Texas lawmakers have done so. On Wednesday, the proposed ban on a border wall at Big Bend National Park, introduced by Cuellar, failed in the House Appropriations Committee after all the Republican members voted against it, the Texas Tribune reported. Earlier this year, Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett and other Democrats wrote a letter urging CBP to abandon its plans for the park and to consult with local groups ahead of any efforts.
Doggett said that waiving the environmental regulations could lead to “irreparable damage.” Doggett said his Republican colleagues on the House Appropriations Committee had “bent their knee to Trump, voting for this devastating construction.”
“After Trump’s contractors tear up the area and displace wildlife, the Big Bend wilderness can never be fully restored,” Doggett wrote in a statement to NOTUS. “Despite months of bipartisan opposition, all elected Texas Republicans have remained stone-silent.”
Some lawmakers defended the Trump administration’s approach to the region.
Republican Rep. Roger Williams told NOTUS that he “trust[s] this administration from an environmental standpoint.”
Asked whether he believed there should be a physical border wall through Big Bend, Sen. Ted Cruz said that while a wall is “critically important, it’s not always necessitated based on geography.”
“That’s why the administration is working cooperatively with state and local officials,” Cruz added.
In a hearing in the House Committee on Homeland Security last week, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said all contracts for the primary border wall would be awarded by the end of June, and it would be completed in approximately one year.
“We’re on track to have the primary wall completed from the Pacific to Gulf of America this time next year,” Mullin told lawmakers. “We’ll have all contracts out by the end of this month. We’re having great progress.”
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