BREAKING: We’re teaming up with the Texas Civil Rights Project to sue U.S Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for withholding public records as the agency continues its push to wall off Big Bend.
CBP refuses to release even the most basic details about their plans, leaving local communities, river outfitters, landowners and land managers completely in the dark.
If CBP had any decency they would meet face-to-face with the communities they are preparing to upend and destroy. They would come survey the wildlife habitat they are about to obliterate. They would hear from local sheriffs who all agree that the wall won’t do a thing to stop smuggling here.
But instead, they’re forcing us to go to court just to get the most basic information about what they’re planning.
We won’t stop fighting for the Big Bend region. We will bring these plans to light. And we won’t let federal officials lock the sacred Rio Grande away behind a cold wall of steel.
The current Department of Homeland Security map shows a border wall cutting through this exact stretch of river in Big Bend Ranch State Park. A $1.2 billion construction contract has already been awarded and every major environmental law has been waived to fast-track it. This isn’t a hypothetical - we could lose this river forever.
Yesterday, I was lucky enough to canoe this 6-mile stretch with some incredible people. Locals told us that if this wall isn’t stopped, this may be the last time anyone ever floats this section. Water levels are already dropping fast - this could be the final week it’s even possible.
Construction is slated to begin this summer.
If this goes forward, a wild, iconic Western river will be locked behind a steel wall. Ecosystems will be fractured and wildlife walled off from their only reliable water source will be left to suffer and die. Access for boaters, farmers and you and your families — all gone forever.
Please speak up. And follow @nobigbendwall for action items, updates and opportunities to get involved — like this Saturday’s big day of action and capitol protest in Austin, TX.
Don’t mess with Texas, right?
Well, the Department of Homeland Security is picking a fight with Big Bend, the most sacred and publicly loved place in the whole damn state. They want to rob us of this natural heritage forever. They want to wall wildlife off from their only water source, the Rio Grande. They want to plow through cultural sites and lock the river behind a wall of steel. Recent news shows DHS updated the wall map to exclude the National Park, but this changes nothing. They could change it back in a second and if we stop paying attention, they will.
This administration’s hatred for public lands knows no bounds. They’re stripping away our natural heritage and selling it off piece by piece, or, in this case, destroying one of the most iconic Western rivers to score a few political points. It’s a grotesque act of political vandalism.
But here in Big Bend, a massive, nonpartisan resistance is growing. It’s activating people like nothing I’ve ever seen.
Join us. Come visit. Take a dip in the river. We can’t let off the pressure.
Just like in this image, dark clouds are gathering above the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park.
Of all the stories I’ve written and updates I’ve shared about the increasingly insane Big Bend border wall saga, this is probably the biggest bombshell of them all.
About a week ago, top border official Rodney Scott said in an interview that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) wouldn’t build a physical wall in Big Bend National Park. CBP Commissioner Scott implied they’d construct paved roads along the Rio Grande instead.
“Big Bend National Park has some just, like, unbelievably huge granite cliffs. It would be kind of silly to put like a 30-foot border wall on top of a 90-foot granite cliff,” Scott said. “So what we’re trying to convey is that we are going to have meaningful border security in that entire area.”
As “silly” as it is to put a 30-foot-tall steel bollard wall on top of cliffs and in some of the most remote and wildest country in the lower 48 states, it now appears that’s exactly what CBP intends to do after all.
This week, Homeland Security awarded a contract of $1.7 billion of our taxpayer money to the industrial construction company Southwest Valley Constructors Co.
This is the biggest border wall contract ever awarded to a single company in U.S. history.
How do we know this contract is actually for a border wall in Big Bend National Park? Because it literally says so: “AWARD OF CONSTRUCTION TASK ORDER FOR BORDER WALL IN BIG BEND TEXAS, SEGMENT IDENTIFIED AS BBT-4.”
BBT-4 is the section of border that runs through the national park.
The effects of this wall on the environment and the area’s tourism industry would be catastrophic. This is a wall that would sever wildlife migration routes, cut off river access to both people and animals, remove campsites and trailheads, annihilate the park’s world-class night sky viewing, and cause massive pollution.
Riverside camping: gone. Multi-day floating trips: gone. World-class stargazing: gone. Soaking in historic hot springs: gone.
To read the full story, follow the link in my profile and scroll down, or check my stories.
#nobigbendwall #keepbigbendwild #noalmuro #protectpubliclands #publiclands
The Department of Homeland Security issued the largest single border wall contract in American history today. $1.7 billion to irreversibly destroy the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park.
Earlier this week, the CBP commissioner said they wouldn't build walls in Big Bend, just new roads. But the new contract says "border walls" right on it, and there's no universe where a road costs $1.7 billion.
The Department of Homeland Security can still reverse this decision. They can cancel these contracts and reinstate protections. Governor Abbott and Senators Cruz and Cornyn still have time to speak out against this assault on the wildest and most beloved public land in all of Texas.
We won't stop fighting for Big Bend. Millions of people are on our side. Our love for this land is more powerful than these corrupt politicians, these billionaire contractors, and the cold dead steel they want to put between us and the Rio Grande.
BREAKING: DHS just awarded the largest border-wall contract in U.S. history—$1.7 billion—and it’s for Big Bend National Park. The contract itself says it’s for “border wall” segment BBT-4 in the national park. This raises alarm bells after CBP commissioner said only roads would be built through national park lands.
Nobody gets paid $1.7 billion to build a road.
BREAKING: DHS waives dozens of environmental laws to rush border construction through congressionally designated Wild & Scenic section of the Rio Grande in Big Bend--the incredibly remote Lower Canyons stretch.
We're looking into legal action. In the meantime, here's our reaction:
"The Lower Canyons of the Rio Grande are one of the wildest places in America—a stretch of river so remote that visitors can float for days without seeing a road, a light, or a single sign of the modern world. This waiver clears the way for DHS to blast roads through serene canyon walls, flood the darkness with artificial stadium lights, and build an industrial barricade across one of the last great rivers in the American Southwest. We will fight this looming catastrophe with everything we've got.”
--Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity
I’ve seen a lot of stories claiming the Big Bend border wall has been “cancelled.” I wish it was that simple.
Here's the reality: wall construction is rapidly pushing forward across the Big Bend region. Laws have been cast aside to speed construction, and bulldozers are arriving on site. Land is being cleared for staging areas and 500-person man-camps.
The only thing that changed that led to all of these vastly overstated stories claiming "victory" was one informal statement that CBP commissioner Rodney Scott gave to the Washington Examiner. He said that in the immediate term CBP would be building a slew of new paved roads and steel vehicle barriers in the national park—roads that would butcher one of the most serene and wild stretches of the region. Scott DID NOT say that they would never build walls in Big Bend National Park, only that right now, they will build hugely destructive roads and vehicle barriers. What's even more clear is that building these new access roads will clear the path for future wall construction. Remember, DHS has $46 billion to spend on border wall construction. No section of the border is safe.
Stay vigilant, stay strong and stay hopeful. Our pressure is so clearly making a difference—in all my time fighting border walls I've never seen public pressure actually get through to CBP and force them to alter their plans... but it's happening now in Big Bend. Please continue to stay engaged in the fight. We can't afford to let up the pressure!
Far out in the Arizona borderlands, in a place where jaguars, ocelots and mountain lions cross the border more frequently than migrants, the Department of Homeland Security is building not one, but two border walls through intact, pristine habitat.
What exactly does it say about the efficacy of border walls that the places that have one wall already need another?
We took this flight with @lighthawk_org and @sc_borderlands to see the status of construction. From the Patagonia Mountains, though the San Rafael Valley, to the Coronado National Memorial, It's not looking good.
Deep out in the Cabeza Prieta wilderness, border wall contractors just obliterated 1,000 years of Indigenous history and a sacred site to the O’odham people.
There are only two possibilities of how this was allowed to happen:
1) negligence at a truly incomprehensible level as contractors mistakenly bulldozed an extensively documented, well-known archeological site that was flagged for protection, or
2) the intentional, malicious destruction of a 1,000-year-old Indigenous sacred site while these contractors thought nobody was looking.
Photos by @peccary_not_pig
We spoke to @laiken_jordahl , National Public Lands Advocate for @centerforbiodiv , about the threats to public lands at the border. An example of exactly what he spoke about just played out as border wall construction bulldozed a sacred Indigenous site at Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.
🎙️ Find the full episode of the Landscape wherever you find podcasts.
#publiclands #arizona #outdoorrecreation
Laiken Jordahl (@laiken_jordahl ), the Center for Biological Diversity’s (@centerforbiodiv ) National Public Lands Advocate, sits down with Jack Humphrey and the Rewilding Earth podcast to discuss the current administration’s plan to extend border wall construction to Big Bend National Park and the West Texas borderlands. This is an immediate, gargantuan threat to one of America’s most iconic “crown jewel” landscapes.
Beyond the political friction, we explore the dire ecological consequences — specifically the severing of wildlife access to the Rio Grande and the depletion of ancient desert springs for concrete production. We dive into the unexpected, non-partisan groundswell of opposition that has united conservationists, Republican sheriffs, ranchers, and local landowners. And we take a sobering look at the “test” of public lands sanctity.
Link in bio!
#BigBend #wildlife #nature #conservation #wall #BorderWall #PublicLands #connectivity #water #RioGrande #NoBigBendWall #ProtectBigBend #TexasHeritage #ProtectPublicLands
