A federal judge on Friday halted the Trump administration’s border wall construction across Texas’s Big Bend sector despite federal officials’ warnings that barriers elsewhere could push illegal crossings into the region.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone issued the injunction in El Paso after local residents and preservation advocates sued to stop the project. The order blocks construction and related work throughout the Big Bend sector, including Big Bend National Park, while the lawsuit proceeds.
The federal government “shall not build border barrier or related infrastructure, or engage in any construction or ground disturbing activities, in the Big Bend sector,” Cardone wrote in her two-page order, which she read aloud in court.
The judge also barred the government from relying on waivers of environmental and other laws it had issued to speed construction. She said the government “must comply with all applicable laws” and found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on at least one of their claims.
The plaintiffs include Billy Miller, a river guide from Terlingua, Texas, and a church preservation group. Their lawsuit followed months of opposition and repeated stops and starts in construction.
Opponents argue that the region’s remote, rugged terrain already discourages illegal crossings and that barriers would damage the landscape. The Big Bend sector records substantially fewer crossings than other sectors along the Texas-Mexico border.
River guides and environmental advocates celebrated outside the El Paso courthouse after Cardone announced her decision.
“We dodged a bullet today,” Miller said. “It means that we can continue to introduce people to the wildness. Their plan was going to ruin the experience of anybody going out there.”
