A tribal nonprofit and an outdoor recreation company sued the federal government Friday to halt border infrastructure construction in Big Bend National Park — the latest legal maneuver to stall the Trump administration's efforts to seal cartel exploitation routes through the park.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it is not building a 30-foot wall or installing stadium lighting through the park. Commissioner Rodney S. Scott issued a statement Thursday "correcting the record," saying the agency is building one new access road, improving existing roads, installing detection technology, and placing vehicle barriers in limited, strategic locations. Heavy machinery visible in the park is for survey and design work, not major construction, according to CBP.
"As we strengthen the border across the Southwest, we will not leave Big Bend as an opening for cartels to exploit by shifting their routes and tactics," the CBP statement reads. "We are securing this park to protect its legacy — keeping it safe, secure, and pristine so American families can enjoy the beauty of our country, free from fear of cartel activity, for generations to come."
The lawsuit, filed by People of La Junta for Preservation, argues that DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin overstepped his authority when he waived dozens of federal and state laws on June 9. While the waiver swept aside environmental and regulatory hurdles, the plaintiffs argue it did not override the provision assigning "administration, protection, and development" of the park exclusively to the Secretary of the Interior and the National Park Service. "Once an archaeological site is excavated by heavy machinery, once the physical context of artifacts is destroyed, or once a sacred or culturally significant landscape is permanently altered, the injury is irreparable," the lawsuit states. Christina Hernandez, founder and director of The People of La Junta for Preservation, said the group is fighting in court because "our ancestors did not survive on this land for thousands of years for us to stand by and wait for someone else to come save it." State Sen. Roland Gutierrez is representing the groups. FOX 4 News quoted Gutierrez saying the Trump administration "wants DHS to bulldoze over the law just as badly as they have bulldozed America" and vowed to fight to preserve the lands. Republican Sen. John Cornyn also pressed DHS in an Aug. 7 letter, saying local officials on both sides of the aisle raised concerns about construction in areas where the terrain — 1,000-foot riverbank cliffs, deep canyons, and desert — already deters crossings. The Daily Caller reported that protesters gathered at Santa Elena Canyon earlier in August, chanting "No road. No wall. No wire. No way." CBP's statement does not include a map or detail how much area the infrastructure will cover — a gap the Daily Caller noted that leaves room for opponents to keep claiming the agency is hiding the scope of the project. The core tension remains: DHS waived a thick stack of federal laws to move forward, and opponents are now searching for any legal foothold to freeze the work. The same courts that can't seem to move fast enough to hold cartel operatives accountable are being asked to indefinitely halt vehicle barriers and sensors in a stretch of border that CBP says cartels would otherwise exploit.
