A federal judge in Texas on Friday issued a preliminary injunction barring the Trump administration from building a border barrier through Big Bend National Park and the surrounding Big Bend Sector while an environmental lawsuit challenging the project works its way through the courts.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone ruled that the government "shall not build border barrier or related infrastructure, or engage in any construction of ground-disturbing activities, in the Big Bend Sector," unless it complies with environmental laws.
The ruling came nearly seven weeks after Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott paused construction amid bipartisan criticism of the border project and its potential impact on the park's landscape and wildlife. Scott said he wanted to visit the area, "do a personal evaluation" and speak with interested parties. The injunction effectively prevents him from changing his mind.
CBP had planned to build roads, surveillance technology and vehicle barriers inside the national park — rather than the 30-foot-high steel walls going up in other border areas. But when crews started clearing land in the park in August, the backlash was swift: protests erupted and lawsuits were filed to halt the work.
Cardone found that the plaintiffs were "likely to succeed on the merits of at least one of the claims in suit," would face "serious, irreparable harm" without an injunction, and that "the balance of the equities and the public interest" weighed in their favor.
The lawsuit was brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, a group called Friends of the Ruidosa Church, and a Big Bend-area river guide and landowner. The plaintiffs asserted that the Trump administration, including Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, had improperly granted a sweeping waiver of environmental statutes to fast-track the Big Bend border plan.
Laiken Jordahl of the Center for Biological Diversity called the ruling a "total victory": "The bulldozers are going to be sent packing until she rules on the merits. This is such a historic day for Big Bend and for Texas and the Constitution." CBP and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to CNN, the Big Bend project is part of a $46 billion Trump administration effort to line the southern border with a mix of 30-foot-tall steel walls, vehicle barriers, roads and surveillance technology. The first border wall panels in the Big Bend sector had been erected in mid-September, just weeks before the ruling.
Opponents argue the region is so remote and its terrain so rugged that it serves as its own deterrent to illegal immigration — and that the administration broke the law by issuing blanket waivers to bypass regulations and speed up construction. The project has drawn bipartisan opposition, uniting landowners, businesses and environmentalists.
The injunction is preliminary, not final: the court has yet to rule on the merits of the environmental claims. But the decision marks another judicial setback for the border crackdown of Trump's second term, and its reasoning could echo in challenges to wall construction elsewhere along the southern border.