The Border Wall Is Coming for the Butterfly Center. Congress Said No Four Times.

There is a 100-acre nature preserve in Mission, Texas that hosts more than 200 species of butterflies and sits in one of the richest migratory bird corridors in North America. It is called, straightforwardly, the National Butterfly Center. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has awarded a contract to build a border wall through it.

Also on the construction list: Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, which birders rank among the top destinations in the country for subtropical species found nowhere else in the US; Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park; La Lomita Chapel, a 19th-century mission; and several historic cemeteries. All of them sit in the Rio Grande Valley stretch between Rio Grande City and Weslaco, Texas.

The legislative history here has a certain dark comedy to it. Congress included language in four consecutive appropriations bills — going back to 2019 — specifically prohibiting the use of federal funds for border barrier construction at these sites.

The exemptions were inserted by Representative Henry Cuellar and held through multiple budget cycles and two administrations. They applied to money appropriated through the normal spending process.

Then came the One Big Beautiful Bill, the budget reconciliation act passed last summer that appropriated $46.5 billion for border wall construction and did not include the exemptions. CBP’s position is that because this money didn’t come through the appropriations process the older exemptions don’t apply to it. Legal experts are divided on whether that argument holds. Construction planning is not waiting for the argument to resolve.

The Rio Grande Valley corridor is not just a Texas conservation issue. It’s the kind of place that ends up on serious birders’ life lists — subtropical riparian habitat supporting species like the Green Jay, the Altamira Oriole, and the Rose-throated Becard that simply don’t exist further north.

The National Butterfly Center director told Border Report that visitation was up and species counts were at record levels this past winter. He’s asked for a meeting with CBP to discuss what comes next. They haven’t responded.