Nature preserves and historic sites in the Rio Grande Valley are at risk after this year's Homeland Security funding bill omitted protections for the Valley's wildlife and historic sites from border wall construction, according to a news release.

The group Friends of the Wildlife Corridor said they’re calling on Congress to restore long-standing protections for sites such as the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, and La Lomita Chapel.

“These protections, upheld for years on a bipartisan basis, were omitted from the current draft legislation, leaving some of the region’s most iconic public lands newly vulnerable to border barrier construction,” a news release stated. 

A map on U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s website shows funding has been approved for barrier construction near La Lomita Chapel and the Bentsen–Rio Grande Valley State Park.

“For wildlife refuges, it's basically the worst possible scenario,” Friends of the Wildlife Corridor Secretary Jim Chapman said. “If you have a continuous border wall in Santa Ana, nothing can get into the refuge, nothing can leave the refuge. Then, you're going to have buoys in the river… everything is going to be trapped between the buoys and the river and the wall."

According to the news release, the sites were previously exempted from border wall construction. New language on the funding bill does not include those protections.

“These refuges and cultural sites are irreplaceable,” Friends of the Wildlife Corridor President Marisa Oliva said in a statement. “They are the heart of the Rio Grande Valley’s natural heritage and a cornerstone of our region’s economy. Congress has protected them for years, and we are urging lawmakers to restore those protections now.”