Trump administration's border barrier project sparks environmental concerns in Texas national park
With sheer cliffs towering hundreds of metres above the waters of the Rio Grande, vast desert landscapes, and rugged mountain ranges, Big Bend National Park in southern Texas is considered one of the most remote parks in the United States.
But this park on the Mexican border has also become a battleground, with strong public opposition to a border infrastructure construction project looming over the area for months, and the waiver of a series of laws to expedite its implementation.
The project is part of US President Donald Trump's massive "One Big Beautiful" tax-and-spending bill passed in May 2025, which allocated $46.5 billion to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. However, this border corridor spans several protected areas, including Big Bend Ranch State Park and Big Bend National Park.
Shifting plans
Repeated changes regarding the specific types of infrastructure planned for the national park have, in particular, fuelled concern among the project's opponents.
A map published in February 2026 by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) appeared to show a steel bollard wall construction project along part of the river. The news sparked an outcry from local residents and officials. Opponents warned of the project's environmental and economic toll and pointed to low and declining crossing rates in the Big Bend area.
The CBP discreetly updated the map in March to indicate it planned to deploy only “detection technologies” within the national park, without making any public announcement about the change.
Information currently available on the CBP website indicates plans to construct new “patrol roads” equipped with “technology” and “vehicle barrier systems” across four separate sections. This is a screenshot of the CBP website as of July 16, 2026, showing the “smart wall” project within Big Bend National Park.
In early July, however, Bloomberg reported that a "30-foot (9-metre) border wall” was set to be built in part of the nearby Big Bend Ranch State Park.
When contacted by our team, CBP said it was “not planning to construct a 30-foot-high barrier” in Big Bend National Park or Big Bend Ranch State Park, but rather to deploy “cameras, sensors, roads, and limited low-profile post-on-rail barriers [...] to restrict unlawful vehicle access while utilising existing natural barriers”.
It also said it “conducts environmental and cultural reviews” prior to barrier construction activities, carried out “outreach in the Big Bend Sector”, and is seeking input for the vehicle barrier system project.
Opponents of the project, meanwhile, have been pointing to the CBP's lack of transparency and the risk that its plans could change again.
“There's a different statement from CBP every day, it seems,” said Laiken Jordahl, a national public lands advocate with the Centre for Biological Diversity, a US non-profit conservation organisation.
'They're free to inflict as much damage as they want'
These concerns were further amplified on June 9, when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) waived 28 environmental and historical preservation laws “in order to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads” in a zone that includes Big Bend National Park. Among the waived laws are the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
Jordahl argues that this waiver gives the CBP enormous leeway:
“Just by publishing this notice in the Federal Register, they have eviscerated decades of environmental protections. Environmental law would normally require the opportunity for public comment, input, transparency and require them to consult with experts, whether those are biologists or archaeologists. But empowered by this waiver, they're free to inflict as much damage as they want with no consequences. Nothing like this has ever occurred in a national park.
This waiver explicitly clears the way for the construction of 30-foot-high physical border walls. If they are not moving forward to build a wall, they have stripped the protections, issued the contracts and given themselves all the tools to be able to decide as soon as they get their machines on the ground that they do want to build a wall. And there's nothing that the public could do to stop them. Right now, we're basically relying on the goodwill of the agency. And CBP has never demonstrated any goodwill to the borderlands. It's a really scary time.”
The Centre for Biological Diversity updated an existing lawsuit in mid-June to challenge the DHS waiver, arguing it was unconstitutional.
In two separate letters addressed to the DHS Secretary, several former superintendents of Big Bend National Park and 18 Democratic members of Congress have also expressed their opposition to the waiver, which DHS had justified by declaring the zone a "high illegal entry area".
“There is no border security emergency here that warrants giving CBP unfettered authority to unnecessarily destroy some of the wildest parts of Big Bend or to disregard the overwhelmingly bipartisan will of the people, the actual data showing minimal numbers of border crossings inside the park,” the latter read.
Members of Congress also noted that “the rough terrain of Big Bend itself and Mexican lands to the south form a natural wall deterring illegal activity”.
According to data obtained by former Big Bend National Park superintendent Bob Krumenaker and published by Public Domain, CPB conducted between 100 and 125 arrests annually within the national park in 2023 and 2024.
'Almost nobody is crossing through the park'
Jordahl highlighted the impact a physical wall would have on local ecosystems, notably on bighorn sheep and black bear populations living in the park.
“Wildlife would be unable to access the Rio Grande, which is their main – and oftentimes only – source of drinking water. We've seen that it had devastating impacts elsewhere in Arizona and other places where border walls have gone up.”
However, he said that even the infrastructure currently slated for the national park would not be harmless. Current plans involve building “patrol roads” up to 7 metres wide and vehicle barriers featuring “steel posts supported by continuous steel rails”, with rail heights of 1.2 to 1.8 metres.
“The areas that they want to build these new roads and barriers are extremely rugged. I think the most damaging part of this project is just the amount of dynamite and blasting, bulldozing and scraping of mountain tops.
There is zero justification for any of this. Almost nobody is crossing through the park. And by building these new roads into the most remote stretch of the park, CBP is going to be opening up new smuggling routes.” These images have been published by CBP. They show examples of a vehicle barrier in Arizona (left) and a patrol and maintenance road in New Mexico (right).
Congress members also argued in their letter that the “construction of new technology and roads will disrupt the flow of the Rio Grande River, increasing flash flood risk”.
'In Big Bend, everybody is opposed to this project'
While Jordahl expressed concern about the project, he emphasised that it had generated opposition he “had never seen before”:
“There has been non-stop public outcry from local residents, local businesses, local law enforcement, and even the Republican sheriffs have gone on record opposing this project. In the past, border walls have been kind of a partisan issue: the left was opposed, and the right was in favour. But here in Big Bend, everybody is opposed to this project.” An installation erected in Terlingua in February 2026 to oppose the construction of a wall in the Big Bend sector. “We support border security but not like this,” one of the signs read.