The Center for Biological Diversity first filed for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction against the construction in August, arguing that the project could cause immediate and irreversible damage to the park.
The National Parks Conservation Association has joined the Sierra Club and its Lone Star Chapter in challenging the Trump administration’s use of waivers to sidestep critical environmental protections in Texas’s Big Bend National Park.
In a press release, the NCPA noted that both organizations are represented by Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization. The lawsuit asks the court to halt a border wall-related construction before it causes irreversible harm to Big Bend’s natural resources.
“We’re backing this legal fight to stop further destruction and ensure the damage already done is repaired,” said Dave Cortez, director of the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter. “Big Bend is one of the most extraordinary landscapes in the country, and Trump’s border construction project has already scarred the land, damaged wildlife habitat, and disrupted the experience of visiting this national park. Big Bend deserves lasting protection from a project that never should have broken ground in the first place.”
The Center for Biological Diversity first filed for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction against the construction in August, arguing that the project could cause immediate and irreversible damage to the parkland.
“Big Bend National Park, the gift that Texas gave the nation, is a wild desert landscape that belongs to all of us. As a national park, Big Bend is meant to be protected under the highest standard of the law, not bulldozed for harmful border infrastructure,” said NPCA-Texas regional director Cary Dupuy. “What message are we sending to future generations if we do not stop this destructive project for good? We are filing this brief because it’s time to stand up for Big Bend.”
The lawsuit, adds Earthjustice, challenges the Secretary of Homeland Security’s issuance of waives under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996; these waivers suspend at least a half-dozen environmental statutes to allow construction of a border wall and related infrastructure without review.
“The Trump administration cannot bulldoze through a National Park and rewrite the laws that protect Big Bend and the wild and scenic Rio Grande,” Earthjustice attorney Meghan Riley said in a statement. “Big Bend National Park was protected for a reason: it is regionally, nationally, and globally important for many species, and we are going to fight to protect it.”
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