Proposed Border Wall at Popular National Park Triggers Outrage

If the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Department of Homeland Security get their way, several laws will be waived to build a border wall that would run right through Big Bend National Park in Texas.

In a notice DHS shared last month, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem claims that "it is necessary to waive certain laws, regulations, and other legal requirements in order to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads in the vicinity of the international land border in the state of Texas."

The agency claims a border wall at the popular national park is needed because the U.S. Border Patrol Big Bend Sector "is an area of high illegal entry."

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection released an interactive map that shows where the proposed 1,954-mile border between the U.S. and Mexico would be built. The so-called "Smart Wall" would include "a combination of primary and secondary steel bollard wall, waterborne barriers, patrol roads, and the technology required to tie it all together, such as cameras, lights, and other detection technology."

A Wall Would 'Choke Vital Wildlife'

As news of the proposed wall spread, activists began petitions to have the proposal shelved.

The National Parks Conservation Association released a blistering statement, claiming that the border wall would cause "irreparable damage to one of our country's most iconic national parks."

"Building a border wall through Big Bend National Park would choke off vital wildlife migration routes [and] intensify flooding risks," the statement read, in part.  

The statement continued, "Big Bend is no place for a border wall. Harsh desert conditions and unforgiving mountain terrain already form natural barriers that discourage unsanctioned border crossings. The detection technology initially proposed for the region would not have as significant an impact to the landscape as a physical barrier. Customs and Border Protection already maintains a presence in Big Bend, given its status as a borderland park, and the current system is not presenting undue burdens on the park. Building a wall here makes no logistical sense and only serves to harm the region's wild scenery and thriving community-based tourism economy."

A Petition Is Gaining Steam

There's a Change.org petition that has already surpassed 57,000 signatures opposing the border wall.

"If erected, this wall would have detrimental, irreversible impacts on the wildlife that call this pristine place home. According to a preliminary federal notice, The Trump Administration is waiving federal protections to build the wall, including protections like the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and a variety of wildlife and historic resources protection laws," the petition reads. " ... Building a physical wall through this section of border would not only be devastating to the local flora and fauna, it would ruin one of the most incredible parcels of public land in the Lone Star State."