1. United States
2. Mo.
3. Letter

Construction has started inside Big Bend National Park. As of August 7, 2026, contractors have been documented grading Glenn Springs Road and working at Cottonwood Campground and Castolon — inside one of America's most treasured national parks. A workforce camp has appeared off Highway 118. RVs have moved into Terlingua to house contractors. This is not a future threat. It is happening today. Big Bend National Park belongs to every American. The federal government has waived 31 environmental protection laws — the most ever waived inside a national park — to make this construction possible. Those laws existed for a reason. They were written to protect places like this from exactly this kind of irreversible damage. The Big Bend sector accounts for 1.3% of all southern border crossings — the lowest of any sector on the entire southern border. The terrain itself — deep canyons, desert mountains, the Rio Grande — is already a natural barrier. Every sheriff, city council, and county commissioner in the five affected counties, Republican and Democrat alike, has formally opposed this project. Over 100,000 people signed a petition against it in weeks. The people this wall claims to protect are unanimously against it. The data does not support it. And now the bulldozers are running anyway, inside a national park that belongs to all of us. I am asking you to use whatever authority and influence you have to halt construction in Big Bend National Park immediately, demand a full review of the 31 environmental law waivers, and stand up for the public lands that belong to every American — not just the ones who live nearby.