Historic Victory: Judge Blocks Trump's Big Bend Border Construction—For Now
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'Historic Victory': A federal judge in El Paso temporarily blocked the Trump administration from continuing construction of border barriers and infrastructure across the Big Bend region on Friday. This win comes for environmentalists, landowners, and Texans from all political backgrounds united against the project.
US District Judge Kathleen Cardone, appointed by former President George W. Bush, granted a preliminary injunction requested by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and other plaintiffs.
“The court finds that plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of at least one of the claims in [their] suit, that there is a likelihood that they will suffer serious, irreparable harm without an injunction, and that the balance of the equities and the public interest weigh in their favor,” Cardone wrote in her decision.
The order immediately stops the Department of Homeland Security and its agencies from:
- Building "border barrier or related infrastructure"
- Engaging in "any construction or ground-disturbing activities"
- Implementing three Trump administration waivers bypassing federal protections.
"This is a historic victory for Big Bend and everyone who loves this wild corner of Texas," said Laiken Jordahl, CBD's national public lands advocate. "No administration has the right to destroy a crown-jewel national park for political theater."
"With a federal court ordering the bulldozers to stop, Big Bend gets to breathe," added Jordahl. "But this fight is far from over. We won’t rest until Big Bend’s environmental protections are fully restored and the illegal waiver that allowed so much destruction is gone for good."