Conservationists among 100+ to sign letter asking Congress to ban Big Bend border wall

TERILINGUA, Texas - About 130 conservation groups, outfitters and rural Texas businesses sent a letter to Congress Thursday asking them to step in to halt efforts to build a border wall in the state's Big Bend parks. 

The letter is the latest action in an ongoing dispute over Customs and Border Protection's "Smart Wall Map," which has quietly swapped back and forth on plans for a physical wall in the Texas parks. Questions regarding the government's plans for such action have resulted in no clear answers so far. 

Conservationists ask Congress for help

The latest:

The group of 128 groups in Thursday's letter includes Texas entities ranging from conservationists and research groups to restaurants and nature guides. They argue that a wall through the Big Bend area would "sever public access to the Rio Grande and devastate the region’s wildlife, recreation economy, and natural and cultural heritage."

The letter asks Congress to include a funding ban on border wall construction in both Big Bend National Park and the neighboring Big Bend Ranch State Park in the upcoming Homeland Security appropriations bill.

The current CBP plans have reversed the indication of "primary border wall" in the national park, though the state park still has a portion covered by what the agency says consists of "steel bollard wall."

DHS waives environmental protection laws

The "awarded" portion of wall plans extending into the state park matches the GPS coordinates indicated in a determination by Kristi Noem on Feb. 17, which she said was found to have "an acute and immediate need to construct additional physical barriers and roads."

In that same document, Noem waived 28 environmental and cultural resource protection laws to fast-track construction in the Big Bend region, including that section of Texas state park. Some of these statutes are named things like "The National Environmental Policy Act," "the Endangered Species Act," and "the Federal Water Pollution Control Act."

Read the full document below:

What's next:

The CBP and DHS continue to respond to requests for statements by saying the wall is "still in planning stages." While the national park only shows "detection technology" at the moment, there's no promise from federal agencies that it won't change again in the future. 

Conservationists on Big Bend wall

What they're saying:

"Congress needs to step in and stop this massively destructive, universally despised trainwreck before it scars the Big Bend region forever," said Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. "We won't let Washington bureaucrats wall off the Rio Grande, block animals from their drinking water and pave over our beloved campsites, swimming holes and trailheads. Big Bend is worth fighting for and we’re just getting started."

The DHS push to wall off the Big Bend region comes even as migrant apprehensions along the southern border have fallen to historic lows, the Center for Biological Diversity said in a Thursday release. The Big Bend Sector accounts for just 1.3% of total apprehensions nationwide.

"Border security is important, and here in Big Bend we’ve shown it can be done with technology and boots on the ground — not a destructive wall," said Bob Krumenaker, former Big Bend National Park superintendent and chair of Keep Big Bend Wild. "Law enforcement across the political spectrum say that a wall is simply unnecessary to secure the border here, and its harm to local communities and the resources and values of these wild lands would be grossly out of proportion to any possible benefits. Nothing would permanently destroy the wildness of Big Bend more than a border wall with its accompanying roads, fences and lights."

The parks are major economic drivers for rural West Texas. In 2024 the national park drew 561,459 visitors who pumped an estimated $56.8 million into nearby communities, CBD's release says, generating $63.7 million in total economic output, and supporting jobs and businesses across Brewster County and surrounding towns.

"I am a second-generation business owner, and a wall here will personally put me and my family out of business," said Will Blackstock, owner of Further Adventures in Terlingua, Texas. "Building a physical barrier through beloved public lands is absurd. The economic impacts on our rural economy would be devastating, as river-focused tourism is the mainstay of many of our area’s largest businesses and is a principal draw for visitation to the Big Bend area. I was born and raised in Big Bend. This place is my home and this fight is personal on every level."

"The communities of Far West Texas depend heavily on tourism, outdoor recreation, and the preservation of the region’s natural beauty," said Billy Bartko, owner of Far Flung Outdoor Center in Terlingua, Texas. "Visitors come from around the world to experience the quiet, open landscape, and the sense of wilderness that defines Big Bend. Transforming that environment with miles of steel wall, construction corridors and lighting threatens the very qualities that sustain local businesses and livelihoods here. The only beneficiaries of this project would be the contractors paid to build the wall. For everyone else — the residents, landowners, businesses, wildlife, and the land itself — the costs would be enormous and permanent."