December 28, 2025
Protect Wildlife—Reject the Senate's Border Lands Act
A new bill in Congress could empower the Department of Homeland Security to convert wilderness into military areas–threatening ocelots, Sonoran pronghorn, and other animals, along with the habitat they need to live.
The Border Lands Conservation Act would sacrifice wildlife and wilderness in the name of border security, opening protected public lands to roads, heavy machinery, aircraft, and permanent infrastructure. These borderlands are some of the last remaining refuges for endangered species and migratory wildlife in the United States. If Congress passes this bill, fragile ecosystems could be irreversibly damaged — and wildlife will bear the cost.
Despite its name, this bill is not about conservation. It would weaken the Wilderness Act of 1964 and open federally protected wilderness areas, national parks, and wildlife refuges to development and constant motorized activity. Once these landscapes are carved up, wildlife will pay the price — and the damage could be permanent.
Undeveloped borderlands provide crucial habitat for species like ocelots, jaguars, gray wolves, pronghorn, migratory birds, and countless other animals that depend on quiet, connected landscapes to survive. New roads, vehicle traffic, and surveillance infrastructure fragment habitat, disrupt breeding and migration, and increase the risk of injury and death for wildlife. For species already pushed to the brink by climate change and habitat loss, this bill could be devastating.
The Border Lands Conservation Act would also give the Department of Homeland Security sweeping authority to override land managers and sidestep environmental safeguards that exist specifically to protect wildlife and ecosystems. That means fewer checks, less accountability, and more destruction — all under the guise of security.
America has long recognized that wilderness areas are meant to remain wild. These places were protected not just for people, but for the animals that cannot advocate for themselves. Turning them into militarized zones sets a dangerous precedent and threatens conservation protections nationwide.
Wildlife deserves protection — not more destruction. Congress must vote NO on the Border Lands Conservation Act.
Please sign this petition to call on Congress to reject the Border Lands Conservation Act and defend the laws that safeguard wildlife, wilderness, and our shared natural heritage. Protecting border communities does not require sacrificing endangered species or dismantling decades of conservation progress.
Thank you for all that you do,
Mitch w/ Animal Commons
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