Originally posted June 11, 2026
A lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security has been amended to challenge the waiver of dozens of environmental laws to make way for a planned border wall through Big Bend National Park. The lawsuit was brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Ruidosa Church and a Big Bend-area landowner in April of this year.
“Federal environmental laws were passed to keep our national parks wild forever,” said Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s unconstitutional to waive those laws to bulldoze border barriers and roads through Big Bend and I’m hopeful a court will agree.”
On Tuesday the Department of Homeland Security waived dozens of environmental laws to authorize construction of border barriers and roads through Big Bend, marking the first time in U.S. history that the federal government has cast aside a broad slate of environmental laws — including the National Park Service Organic Act, Endangered Species Act and National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act — inside a national park.
Read the full story at National Parks Traveler.
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