The Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park, Texas. Photo: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The US Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the Trump administration to resume building border barriers and roads in the Big Bend region of West Texas, including inside Big Bend National Park, lifting a federal judge's order that had halted the work for the past month.
An 8-1 Decision
In an unsigned opinion in the case Mullin v. Friends of the Ruidosa Church, the justices granted the government's emergency request to stay a preliminary injunction issued in October by US District Judge Kathleen Cardone of El Paso. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only member of the court who said she would have denied the request.
The court said the administration was "exceedingly likely" to succeed in its argument that Judge Cardone did not have the power to block the construction, and that the government's interest in border security "outweighs any aesthetic, recreational and environmental harm alleged by respondents." The justices declined the administration's separate request to summarily reverse Cardone's ruling outright. The stay remains in place while the government pursues a full appeal.
The Case Against the Wall
The lawsuit was brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, a Big Bend-area river guide and landowner, and a group seeking to preserve a historic adobe church in Ruidosa, Texas, which says its fragile structure is threatened by the construction.
The plaintiffs challenged a series of waivers issued by the Department of Homeland Security to speed up construction of roads and barriers in the region, setting aside a wide range of environmental and conservation laws, including the Endangered Species Act. The waivers were issued between February and July by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her successor, Markwayne Mullin, under a 1996 law aimed at speeding barrier construction in areas of high illegal entry.
In October, Judge Cardone blocked the project, finding that the waivers lacked clear congressional authorisation and violated the major questions doctrine. She noted that Big Bend has, by far, the lowest rate of migrant apprehensions along the entire south-west border, even though the sector spans more than 300 miles of the Rio Grande, over a quarter of the entire US-Mexico border.
What Will Be Built
The administration says most of the construction in the Big Bend sector will take place on privately owned land. Big Bend National Park itself would get a 17-mile (27-kilometre) non-contiguous vehicle barrier system, but not the kind of 30-foot (9-metre) pedestrian barrier planned for other areas. The administration paused construction in August after the project drew bipartisan criticism over its potential impact on the park's landscape and wildlife, before resuming its push in court.
Reaction and What Happens Next
The Center for Biological Diversity called the ruling a "horrific decision" that "clears the way for contractors to bulldoze pristine desert and dynamite canyon walls before the courts have even decided whether this destruction is legal." The group stressed that the ruling addressed only the injunction, not the merits of the lawsuit, which will continue in the lower courts.
For now, construction can resume while the legal fight goes on, a significant win for one of President Trump's signature immigration priorities, and a blow to environmental groups that had hoped the courts would keep the bulldozers out of one of America's most remote national parks.
Sources: Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Straits Times.