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yesterday

DHS Waives Environmental Rules for Big Bend as New Lawsuit Challenges Plans

Mid‑June waivers fast‑track federal border work and raise immediate legal and environmental risks to levees, wildlife and park authority.

Wayne Grumet, center, with kids Toby, 12, left, and Katie, 10, stand near the entrance to Santa Elena Canyon in 2017 as dog Charlie drinks from the Rio Grande. Big Bend National Park contains spaces that bind us to the moment and to something timeless, Bridget Grumet writes.
A canoe serves as a protest sign against a border wall in Redford on June 5, 2026.
Bluebonnets under the night sky in Big Bend National Park, one of the darkest stargazing spots in the U.S. Visitors here can see more than 2,000 stars, compared to the few hundred typically visible in a city.
More than a half-million people visit Big Bend National Park each year. The plans for miles of 4-foot-tall metal barriers through the park, part of the Trump administration's border security infrastructure, would bring permanent changes to a timeless landscape. 

Overview

  • Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin issued waivers in mid‑June that remove dozens of environmental and historic protections to clear the way for border infrastructure in the Big Bend sector.
  • Democracy Forward sued the administration on June 17 on behalf of the Presidio Municipal Development District, alleging the plans would compromise the Presidio Flood Control Project and that required Army approvals were not obtained.
  • U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it is still deciding exact barrier and technology locations, has begun limited preparatory work outside the park, and intends to start construction later this summer where crossings have been historically higher.
  • The federal government awarded a reported $1.7 billion contract covering Big Bend through December 2028, which critics say could bring roads, lighting, 17 miles of river impacts and permanent landscape changes that threaten species and dark‑sky values.
  • Local leaders and seven former Big Bend superintendents have joined bipartisan congressional signatories in opposing the moves, citing low recent migrant‑encounter rates in the sector and warning that lawsuits and public comment could delay or reshape the projects.