Supreme Court Clears Trump Administration to Resume Big Bend Border Wall Construction

The Supreme Court on Monday granted the Trump administration’s emergency request to resume construction of border barriers, access roads, and related infrastructure in the Big Bend sector of southwestern Texas.

In an unsigned, roughly five-page per curiam opinion, the Court stayed a preliminary injunction issued October 2 by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone that had halted ground-disturbing activities across the sector, which spans more than 500 miles and includes areas near Big Bend National Park. The justices wrote that the lower-court order “impedes the Government from advancing its ‘compelling interests’ in border security and integrity.” Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson indicated, without explanation, that she would have denied the stay.

The administration relied on Section 102 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive environmental, historic-preservation, and other legal requirements in areas of high illegal entry. The Court noted that Congress’s enactment of the waiver authority “reflects a clear preference for expeditious border construction over the very harms” asserted by the plaintiffs, which include the Center for Biological Diversity, a river guide, and a church-preservation group.

Construction of stretches in Hudspeth County and elsewhere in the sector had begun earlier this year before the injunction. Customs and Border Protection has said the project prioritizes vehicle barriers, roads, and surveillance in remote canyons rather than a continuous high wall through the park itself. Administration officials have described the sector as an area of high illegal entry and have said delays were costing roughly half a million dollars a day.

The stay remains in effect pending any petition for certiorari. The underlying merits litigation continues in the lower courts.