Judge Halts Border Wall Construction Across Entire Big Bend Sector
A federal court in Texas issued a ruling on Friday temporarily blocking the Trump administration from building a border wall and related infrastructure across the state’s Big Bend region, dealing a setback to a project that has drawn bipartisan opposition.
The ruling, handed down by Judge Kathleen Cardone, covers not just Big Bend National Park itself but extends across the entire roughly 500-mile Big Bend sector, which accounts for about a quarter of the approximately 2,000-mile US-Mexico border. The decision comes just weeks after the administration erected the first border wall panels in the sector in mid-September.
The case behind the ruling
The lawsuit was brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, whose representative Laiken Jordahl called the ruling a “total victory.” Opponents have argued that the Big Bend region’s remoteness and rugged terrain already function as a natural deterrent to illegal crossings, and that the administration violated the law by issuing a sweeping set of waivers to bypass standard regulatory review in order to accelerate construction.
The project is part of a $46 billion Trump administration effort to extend border infrastructure — including 30-foot steel walls, vehicle barriers, roads and surveillance technology — along the southern border. The Big Bend plan has united an unusual coalition of landowners, businesses and environmentalists in opposition, with both Republicans and Democrats calling for construction to stop after bulldozers were spotted clearing land inside the national park in August.
A pause that lapsed, then a new block
Customs and Border Protection had paused construction activity in the park following that backlash, but the pause expired on September 30. The administration has said it is “reevaluating” its plans for the national park but had not, as of Friday, indicated what it intends to do. Friday’s ruling also extends upriver and downriver from the park itself, into stretches where CBP had planned additional infrastructure projects that would largely run across privately owned land.
Reaction from advocates
Tiernan Sittenfeld, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association, welcomed the decision but urged the administration to go further. “Big Bend is no place for border barriers. It’s time for the administration to come to the table with the border communities that know Big Bend best, repair the damage from this ill-conceived project, and find new solutions,” she said. Another advocate for the park described the ruling as “a historic day for Big Bend and for Texas and the Constitution.”
The Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling.
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