GOP Senator Protests Trump Admin Plans to Bulldoze Parts of Big Bend National Park For Border Wall

RIGHT: John Cornyn (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) LEFT: Donald Trump (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) called on President Donald Trump’s administration Tuesday to address concerns about plans to build new border barriers through parts of Big Bend National Park, warning of the potential environmental impact.

The senator’s X post, highlighting a letter he sent to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, read:

I sent a letter to @SecMullinDHS highlighting Texans’ concerns about plans for border wall construction in @BigBendNPS & Big Bend Ranch State Park.

I will always support securing our border, but local officials on both sides of the aisle & other stakeholders have shared with me concerns about potential impacts in areas where the terrain already acts as deterrence for illegal crossings, whether it be 1,000-foot riverbank cliffs, deep canyons, or deserts.

@DHSgov should coordinate directly with Texas stakeholders as they have in the past & address these concerns before moving forward with physical barriers in these areas.

A Wednesday report from The Washington Post revealed that construction is already underway inside the national park, where crews began clearing land last week for a new Border Patrol road, part of the Trump administration’s $46.5 billion effort to expand border barriers and other security infrastructure along the U.S.-Mexico border.

As Cornyn’s letter expressed, the construction has alarmed environmentalists because crews have begun working near Santa Elena Canyon in an area designated as critical habitat for the threatened yellow-billed cuckoo. The Department of Homeland Security has waived contractors from complying with dozens of federal laws, including the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, as it moves forward with the project.

The work also comes after the Trump administration weakened Endangered Species Act protections last month, repealing a decades-old rule that treated destruction of an endangered species’ habitat as a form of “harm” under the law. The administration has also rolled back automatic protections for newly listed threatened species and required regulators to consider economic impacts when designating critical habitat.

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