Trump Asks Supreme Court to Let Big Bend Border Wall Construction Resume
The Justice Department filed an emergency request asking the justices to lift a federal judge's Oct. 2 order that halted barrier construction in a remote West Texas region while an environmental lawsuit plays out.
President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to let it resume building a border barrier in a remote stretch of West Texas that includes Big Bend National Park.
The Justice Department filed an emergency request asking the court to lift an order by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, who halted construction on Oct. 2 while a lawsuit against the project plays out. The department urged the justices to pause or overturn the injunction.
A fight over environmental waivers
The lawsuit, brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, a Big Bend-area river guide and a group seeking to preserve a historic church in Ruidosa, Texas, challenges a series of waivers the Department of Homeland Security issued to speed up construction of roads and barriers in the Big Bend region. The waivers set aside a range of environmental and conservation laws.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the current secretary, Markwayne Mullin, issued the waivers between February and July after finding the region to be an “area of high illegal entry” that needed additional barriers. In an opinion issued after her injunction, Cardone found that the waivers exceeded the authority of Noem and Mullin.
“Even assuming that the secretary’s waiver authority implicates a question of ‘vast economic and political significance,’ Congress did clearly authorize the secretary both to build border barriers and to waive legal requirements in order to facilitate their expeditious construction,” the Justice Department wrote in its filing.
Park project drew bipartisan pushback
The administration’s push to extend border infrastructure into the national park, about 250 miles southeast of El Paso, has drawn opposition from local officials, conservationists and some Texas Republicans. The group seeking to preserve the Ruidosa church says its fragile adobe structure is threatened by the construction.
In August, the administration paused construction in Big Bend after the project drew bipartisan criticism over its potential impact on the park’s landscape and wildlife. Crews had begun clearing land in the park for roads and border security infrastructure, prompting protests and lawsuits seeking to halt the work.
Reporting based on coverage by Reuters.
