Bulldozers begin clearing ground for border barriers inside Big Bend National Park

Federal contractors began clearing ground inside Big Bend National Park on August 6, working near Terlingua, Texas, in the Santa Elena Canyon area and toward the remote Mariscal Mountain, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. The Department of Homeland Security authorized the work by setting aside dozens of federal laws that would otherwise govern building inside the park.

The department signed the waiver covering the park in June. It suspended the National Park Service Organic Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, among dozens of other laws, to allow fencing, barriers, roads, lighting, cameras and sensors along more than 100 miles of the border, including about 60 miles along the Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River. The Center for Biological Diversity said it was the first time the federal government had waived that breadth of environmental law for construction inside a national park. Contracts tied to the work total about $4.3 billion, in awards of $1.7 billion and $2.6 billion.

The Texas Tribune reported that the $1.7 billion contract was awarded on May 11 and covers 17 miles of vehicle barriers and patrol roads plus 205 miles of patrol roads and surveillance technology. Customs and Border Protection said the project “utilizes technology like cameras and sensors, along with limited, low-profile, post-on-rail barriers in strategic areas designed to restrict vehicle access while leveraging the natural barriers that already exist in the area.” A second contract, for $4.5 million of resource monitoring support, was awarded three days later.

A second waiver followed on July 27, signed by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and published in the Federal Register the same day, Marfa Public Radio reported. That notice covers the stretch of the Rio Grande from the Big Bend canyon country downriver to Lake Amistad, spanning the Border Patrol’s Big Bend and Del Rio sectors, and sets aside the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the National Historic Preservation Act and the Wilderness Act. The notice does not specify what will be built in any particular place.

Customs and Border Protection has said its plans inside Big Bend National Park involve vehicle barriers, surveillance technology and patrol road work, and that there will be no 30 foot border wall inside the park itself. An agency map reviewed by Marfa Public Radio showed roughly two miles of proposed 30 foot wall segments along the western edge of Big Bend Ranch State Park, with plans still under development. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to the station’s request for further detail about what is planned where.

Apprehensions in the Border Patrol’s Big Bend Sector totaled 3,096 in fiscal year 2025, down 37 percent from the previous year and 74 percent from fiscal year 2023, and more than 89,000 across fiscal years 2021 through 2025. The National Parks Conservation Association said Big Bend consistently ranks lowest in unauthorized crossings among sections of the border, and that five separate projects are now underway in the Big Bend region, including work touching Amistad National Recreation Area and Big Bend Ranch State Park.

The park covers about 801,000 acres, and its southern boundary runs 118 miles along the border with Mexico. Federal agencies did not comment on the start of construction, the Spokesman-Review reported, and the Department of Homeland Security has previously said about 372 miles of border would be left without physical barriers because of terrain.

“Bulldozing Big Bend National Park is an unconscionable attack on one of America’s greatest treasures,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, president and chief executive of the National Parks Conservation Association, who added that park advocates and local communities had warned the administration for months about the risks of construction there.

Laiken Jordahl, a national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the project is “the most heinous attack on an American national park in generations,” and that “the only people benefiting from this destruction are billionaire contractors padding their pockets.” Mike Davidson, a Rio Grande river guide who has lived in the area for 50 years, told the Spokesman-Review the work is “horrifying,” and described it as “an invasion” and an “occupation.”

The Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Ruidosa Church and a landowner in the Big Bend area are challenging the waivers in federal court, arguing that the department cannot set aside that many laws, with consequences of that scale, without authorization from Congress. The case is ongoing. Park visitors spent $56.8 million in surrounding communities in 2024, according to figures cited by the Center for Biological Diversity.

The Spokesman-Review described local opposition to the project as nearly unanimous. The Center for Biological Diversity has said the barriers, roads and lighting would fragment wildlife habitat and affect one of the darkest night skies in the country. Clearing work inside the park is continuing, and the challenge to the June waiver is pending in federal court.