TERLINGUA, Texas— The Center for Biological Diversity and Texas Civil Rights Project sued U.S. Customs and Border Protection today for withholding public records on plans to build border walls through the Big Bend region of Texas.

A border wall would sever public access to the Rio Grande and devastate the region’s wildlife, recreation economy, and natural and cultural heritage.

“This lawsuit seeks to expose the federal government’s plans to rip away the livelihoods of rural Texas families with a wall that no one here wants,” said Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Big Bend residents, landowners and river outfitters are being treated like second-class citizens. They’re being kept in the dark as federal agencies push this wall through behind closed doors and refuse to release even basic details. The federal government needs to stop hiding information from people and stop this wildly unpopular, destructive wall before irreversible damage is done.”

Today’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Texas, seeks public records under the Freedom of Information Act on border wall construction plans, including emails, memos, maps and data.

“Border walls not only threaten the natural beauty of Big Bend, but cause further harm to Texans and our livelihoods,” said Rochelle M. Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project. “Big Bend community members have made it clear that border walls are a waste of taxpayer dollars – regardless of politics. This severe overreach by the federal government is manipulatively using our state’s biggest and boldest landscape as a means to further divide us. The Texas Civil Rights Project has stood with border communities for over 35 years and will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with Big Bend residents and landowners who deserve transparency around all facets of planning and decision-making.”

In October 2025 and February 2026 the Department of Homeland Security issued two waivers covering dozens of procurement, environmental, cultural resource protection and other laws to fast-track wall construction through the Big Bend region, including Big Bend Ranch State Park. The federal government has since awarded construction contracts for the region.

Local media have reported that contractors surveyed land inside Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park, and residents have documented crews installing survey stakes for wall construction in the state park and upriver. Customs and Border Protection has repeatedly revised its online maps and issued conflicting statements about whether walls would be built in both the state and national parks.

In late February, Customs and Border Protection released planning maps showing border walls sealing off every reachable stretch of the Rio Grande in both parks. After bipartisan public outcry from local sheriffs, residents, elected officials and business leaders, the agency continued to revise its online maps. Updated maps removed physical wall segments from the national and state parks and replaced them with “detection technology,” an undefined term. The agency has said border barriers are “still in the planning stages,” signaling additional changes may occur and construction could begin without public notice, input or congressional approval.

Today’s lawsuit also seeks public records justifying the designation of the Big Bend Sector as an “area of high illegal entry,” despite having the lowest number of crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border and historically low apprehensions. The Big Bend Sector spans roughly a quarter of the border but accounts for just 1.3% of all Southwest border apprehensions.

The groups filed FOIA requests with Customs and Border Protection on March 6, but so far the agency has failed to respond. The nation’s public records law is meant to give people access to information about the functioning of federal agencies by guaranteeing a response within 20 business days of a request.

Last month, more than 130 organizations, outfitters and rural Texas businesses urged Congress to block federal funding for border wall construction in the Big Bend region.

Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park protect more than 1.1 million acres of public lands along the Rio Grande, including long stretches designated as a Wild and Scenic River. A wall through the region would block public access to the river and damage one of the most remote and intact landscapes in the country, causing lasting damage to wildlife, landowners, local economies and the region’s natural and cultural heritage.