DHS Secretary Mullin waived dozens of environmental and historic-preservation laws for border wall construction from Big Bend to Lake Amistad

On July 27, 2026, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin signed a determination under Section 102 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, as amended by the REAL ID Act, waiving roughly 30 federal statutes — including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Wilderness Act, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act — with respect to construction of border barriers, roads, staging areas, drainage systems, lighting, cameras, and sensors. The determination, published the same day in the Federal Register, covers a project area within the Border Patrol's Big Bend and Del Rio sectors running from a point in the Big Bend region east to a point near Lake Amistad, though it does not specify what infrastructure will be built where within that area.

DHS justified the waiver by citing an "acute and immediate need," pointing to more than 89,000 Border Patrol apprehensions in the Big Bend Sector and more than 1.4 million in the Del Rio Sector between fiscal years 2021 and 2025. The agency's own more recent statistics undercut that justification for the Big Bend Sector specifically: apprehensions there fell to 3,096 in fiscal 2025, down 37 percent from the prior year and 74 percent from fiscal 2023. Section 102(c) of IIRIRA lets the Secretary waive "in their entirety" any legal requirement determined necessary for expeditious barrier construction, without further review by Congress or the courts.

Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the waiver was the first to reach the stretch of the Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River running through Big Bend National Park itself, extending the geographic reach of an earlier, narrower waiver Mullin signed in June 2026 that covered a 60-mile stretch of the river between the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area and the Amistad National Recreation Area, downstream of the park. CBP has said it does not currently plan a 30-foot wall inside the national park itself, describing plans there for vehicle barriers, surveillance technology, and patrol-road work instead; Jordahl said contractors and surveyors had already been observed working inside the park and that construction there was "imminent." CBP did not respond to a request from Texas Public Radio for further detail about planned construction.

The waiver is at least the third DHS has issued for Big Bend-area border construction in 2026, following an earlier waiver in February and the narrower June waiver, as the agency proceeds with a border-wall program that has already drawn litigation from the Center for Biological Diversity and opposition from former Big Bend National Park superintendents, county sheriffs, and river-outfitter businesses.

Updates

2026-08-17 — CBP paused Big Bend border wall construction amid opposition [6, 7]

CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott announced in a video posted to X that he had ordered a pause on all construction activity in Big Bend National Park as of Sunday night, reversing course after heavy machinery had already begun moving dirt. Scott said he was traveling to the park to conduct a personal evaluation and meet with stakeholders, local law enforcement, Gov. Greg Abbott, and Sen. John Cornyn before deciding how to proceed. The pause followed sustained bipartisan local and state opposition, including an Aug. 7 letter from Cornyn asking Secretary Mullin to halt construction pending consultation with stakeholders.