Federal Judge Defends Big Bend from Trump’s Destructive Border Wall Expansion
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A U.S. district judge has courageously halted the Trump administration’s reckless plan to expand border wall infrastructure in West Texas’ Big Bend National Park, citing likely legal violations and the threat of irreversible environmental harm.
In a significant rebuke to the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda, a U.S. district judge in El Paso issued a temporary injunction on Friday, stopping the Department of Homeland Security from bulldozing ahead with border wall construction and related infrastructure in the ecologically sensitive Big Bend region of west Texas. The ruling blocks several waivers that had irresponsibly suspended crucial environmental and historic preservation laws, and it bars Customs and Border Protection from any ground disturbance unless those laws are respected.
This injunction is the result of a lawsuit brought by the Friends of the Ruidosa church, the Center for Biological Diversity, and river guide Billy Miller, who argued that the administration’s waivers were illegal and that the ongoing construction would inflict irreparable damage on the land and its communities. Judge Kathleen Cardone recognized the plaintiffs’ strong case and determined that the threat of harm justified immediate intervention.
"This is a historic victory for Big Bend and everyone who loves this wild corner of Texas," said Laiken Jordahl of the Center for Biological Diversity. "No administration has the right to destroy a crown-jewel national park for political theatre."
Customs and Border Protection, which has already handed out over $6 billion in contracts for the so-called “smart wall” in the area, responded with bureaucratic indifference, insisting on its legal authority and vowing to work with the Justice Department on next steps.
Congress’s allocation of $46.5 billion for border wall projects in the recent spending bill has only fueled this wasteful and destructive obsession, with CBP targeting the Big Bend stretch—the longest unwalled segment of the U.S.–Mexico border. Local landowners and officials have repeatedly pointed out that the remote, rugged terrain already limits crossings, making the push for new barriers not only environmentally disastrous but also unnecessary.