Our parks should be places for people and wildlife, not prisons.
From Big Bend National Park and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to Big Cypress National Preserve and Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, some of America's most treasured landscapes are under threat from proposals for border wall expansion, militarization, and detention facilities.
These aren't just remote places on a map; they are beloved parks, crucial wildlife refuges, and recreation areas where people hike, paddle, camp, and connect with nature. Construction of new border wall and detention infrastructure threatens to fragment wildlife habitat, restrict access to public lands, and permanently change the experience of these landscapes for visitors and for indigenous communities that inhabit these lands.
Even more troubling, some of these projects could be funded using money intended for disaster relief through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). That means funds meant to help communities recover from floods, fires, and hurricanes could instead be illegally diverted towards projects that damage ecosystems, limit public access to the outdoors, and endanger people.
That's why it's so important that we learn about these issues and discuss how we can take action to defend against these harmful projects.