Sponsors (9)
Official title: Address the management by certain Federal land management agencies over Federal land along the southern border and northern border, and for other purposes.
Introduced October 2, 2025 by Mike Lee · Last progress October 2, 2025
The bill substantially strengthens border enforcement, operational access, and interagency coordination on federal lands—improving security and emergency response—while imposing environmental damage, reduced public access and privacy, fiscal costs, and strains on local services and tribal/land‑management priorities.
Border communities and law‑enforcement: the bill expands DHS and agency capabilities (roads, tactical infrastructure, access, and coordinated agreements) to strengthen interdiction and border security operations on federal lands.
Residents and emergency responders in border/rural areas: improved search-and-rescue, disaster response, and lower wildfire risk from new access routes and targeted fuel-reduction treatments.
Federal agencies and local partners: clearer definitions, required interagency agreements, and mandated reporting improve coordination, planning, and accountability for border operations and land-management activities.
Public lands users, wildlife, and ecosystems: construction of roads, barriers, aircraft use, and permanent tactical infrastructure will fragment habitat, degrade wilderness character, and harm conservation values across affected federal lands.
Border and nearby residents: increased DHS presence, surveillance, and expanded operational access will reduce privacy and recreational access on federal lands and increase everyday encounters with law enforcement.
Undocumented immigrants and low-income people: banning use of federal lands for humanitarian housing risks leaving people without shelter, increasing homelessness and shifting responsibility to local providers and nonprofits.
Based on analysis of 11 sections of legislative text.
Requires road-building, tactical infrastructure, DHS access and expanded border-security authority on federal lands adjacent to U.S. borders, bans federal-funded housing for undocumented migrants on those lands, and mandates fuels management and reports.
Prohibits federal funds from being used to provide housing to people without lawful immigration status on federal lands managed by Interior and Agriculture, while allowing detention and removal-related facilities to continue. It requires inventories, construction and maintenance of roads and tactical infrastructure, cooperative agreements with DHS, expanded DHS authorities in wilderness and covered lands, a fuels-management program to reduce wildfire risk near borders, and multiple reports on environmental, public-safety, and resource impacts tied to unauthorized border crossings. The law directs the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to prioritize access for DHS, DoD, and law enforcement, authorizes DHS activities that would otherwise be limited in designated wilderness, and mandates coordination and technical assistance between land managers and Homeland Security to gain and maintain operational control of the northern and southern borders on specified federal lands.