Federal Judge Halts Big Bend Border Wall Construction: A Blow to Trump's Agenda
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Crews install the first sections of a new border wall in the Big Bend region of west Texas, on Sept. 16, 2026.
Photograph: Scott McWilliams/AP
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A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from expanding the border wall and other security infrastructure across the Big Bend region of west Texas, where contentious plans to build roads and vehicle barriers through a popular national park have led to furious backlash and public protests.
US district judge Kathleen Cardone’s ruling after a Friday hearing in El Paso deals a major blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to expand the border wall through west Texas at breakneck pace, while riding roughshod over the objections of local business owners, landowners, public land advocates and politicians from both parties.
A small Texas town stopped Trump’s border wall construction – for now
Read more
Plans to mar Big Bend national park with new roads and 6-ft tall vehicle barriers have drawn the most national attention since the Trump administration started advancing the border wall construction earlier this year. Images of bulldozers plowing up ground for new roads at the park in August drew outrage, prompting Rodney Scott, the CBP commissioner, to temporarily halt construction. Construction resumed in September.
Friday’s ruling came after a hearing in a lawsuit filed by the Friends of the Ruidosa church, the Center for Biological Diversity and river guide Billy Miller seeking to overturn several Department of Homeland Security (DHS) waivers that suspended dozens of environmental and historical protection laws to speed construction.
Cardone blocked the DHS waivers in her ruling, saying that the plaintiffs were likely to win and would suffer irreparable harm if construction moved forward. The ruling bars CBP from border security infrastructure construction or ground disturbance, unless it complies with the federal laws that DHS tried to suspend.
“This is a historic victory for Big Bend and everyone who loves this wild corner of Texas,” said Laiken Jordahl, a public land advocate