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The Friends of the Wildlife Corridor is ringing the alarms as protections for various local refuges and historical sites have been omitted from the appropriations bill regarding funding for the Department of Homeland Security, leaving those sites vulnerable to border barrier construction.

The organization is urging Congress to restore long-standing protections for Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, La Lomita Chapel and Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park as well as other vital cultural and historical public lands along the border.

Although there haven’t been any contracts or construction yet, U.S. Customs and Border Protection have already mapped out plans for border wall extensions that would wall in those three sites.

“The problem we have now is that DHS has the money to wall these places and … there’s no longer an exception or provision in putting walls there,” said Jim Chapman of the Friends of the Wildlife Corridor.

As part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law last year, the legislation provided DHS with $46.5 billion for border infrastructure and the wall system.

The funding would allow “construction, installation, or improvement of new or replacement primary, waterborne, and secondary barriers” in addition to attributes such as cameras, lights, sensors and other detection technology.

Ultimately, CBP is able to conduct any work deemed necessary to prepare the ground at or near the border to allow the agency to conduct its operations, including construction and maintenance of the barrier system.

The $46.5 billion remains available until Sept. 30, 2029.

But the legislation, appropriated to the commissioner of CBP for the Fiscal Year 2025, excludes specific language meant to protect sites like Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, La Lomita Chapel and Bentsen-RGV State Park from being walled in.

“They could use last year’s money because the provision in the 2026 bill would only apply to the 2026 funds,” Chapman said. “What it really needs to say is that the provision applies to all DHS funding, regardless of fiscal year.”

A similar situation transpired in 2021 that resulted in the appropriations bill that year including language that precluded DHS from putting walls at refuge and historic sites.

“Federal funds may not be made available for the construction of fencing— (1) within the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge; (2) within the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park; (3) within La Lomita Historical park; (4) within the National Butterfly Center; (5) within or east of the Vista del Mar Ranch tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge; or (6) within historic cemeteries,” reads Section 211 from H.R. 133.

Chapman said the language came to be due to protests and demonstrations during 2018, such as the time a couple thousand people marched from downtown Mission to La Lomita voicing against the border wall.

Every year since then, that protective language has been part of appropriation bills or continued through resolutions, which is why the border walls come up in those areas, but do not wall those sites in, Chapman explained.

“But now they’re just going to reverse all that so that’s why we’re trying to raise the alarm,” he said. “Since it looks like they didn’t pass the DHS appropriations bill yet, there is still time to put language into that.”

As one of the most biodiverse regions in North America, the Valley generates $463 million annually through nature tourism as well as attracting 500,000 visitors each year to an area home to more than 540 bird species and ranked as the second best bird-watching destination on the continent.

Moreover, Friends of the Wildlife Corridor also noted that the three sites play a vital role in national conservation as many migratory bird species that winter or pass through the Valley travel up the Central and Atlantic Flyways, connecting Texas to states across the country.

“What we are hoping Congress will do is when they do finally pass the 2026 appropriations bill that it includes language that will essentially preclude DHS from walling out those areas from any DHS appropriations, not just the current one,” Chapman said.

U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and Vicente Gonzalez, D-Brownsville, have previously vocalized their opposition to border wall construction at the three sites. Cuellar did not immediately respond to a request for comment while Gonzalez wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Cuellar was behind the push to secure the protections for the sites for the Fiscal Year 2019 as well as Fiscal Year 2021.

“The Trump Administration’s ineffective border wall is detrimental to our history, our cultural and our environmentally sensitive areas. These sites are not just important to our livelihoods, they symbolize our community’s cultural and religious identity,” Cuellar said in a statement in 2020. “For these reasons, I worked hard to include language in this year’s Appropriations bill that prohibits any border construction within a number of sites in South Texas, including the Sacred Heart Children’s Home in Laredo.”

U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg, wasn’t immediately available for comment.

The post ‘There is still time’: Nonprofit urges restoring border wall protections for Valley refuges appeared first on MyRGV.com.