The Trump administration is once again bypassing federal environmental laws to accelerate work on border barriers and related infrastructure in the Big Bend region of West Texas, this time in and around the region’s namesake national and state parks.
According to a preliminary federal notice released Monday, the latest regulatory waiver from the Department of Homeland Security will apply to more than 100 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border in the region. The area covered runs from near the Closed Canyon trail in Big Bend Ranch State Park through the entirety of Big Bend National Park and into remote parts of southeastern Brewster County.
In the notice, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin wrote that the administration is bypassing a wide range of laws “to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads” along the southern border.
While U.S. Customs and Border Protection continues to insist it will not build a 30-foot-tall steel border wall in either the state or national park, the agency’s current plans call for a mix of vehicle barriers, surveillance technology and patrol road upgrades in the parks as part of a project dubbed “Big Bend 4.” A CBP spokesperson confirmed that the latest waiver is intended for that project.
The move marks the latest instance in which the administration has used its authority to waive federal environmental and other laws to speed up border barrier construction, a practice that has drawn repeated legal challenges from environmental groups and conservation organizations.