Trump administration asks Supreme Court to restart Big Bend border work
The US Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to suspend an injunction halting border infrastructure work in Texas’s Big Bend region. The request follows a lower court’s rejection of an earlier appeal to restart work. Construction remains blocked while environmental and preservation groups challenge the project, which includes walls on private land and security infrastructure in parks.
Geopolitics··Evening
Justice Department seeks a Supreme Court stay
The Trump administration asked the US Supreme Court on October 21 to allow border construction in Texas’s Big Bend region to resume. Its emergency application seeks to suspend a lower-court injunction that halted the work. The construction block remains in effect.[1], [2]
Federal Judge Kathleen Cardone’s order blocks both border barrier construction and regulatory waivers used to accelerate it across the region. On October 20, she rejected the government’s separate lower-court request to let work continue. The Justice Department is seeking both a stay and summary reversal of her original injunction.[1]
Environmental and preservation groups challenge the project
The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental organisation, a church preservation group and a local river guide are suing the Department of Homeland Security and US Customs and Border Protection. The administration argues that border security interests outweigh the plaintiffs’ aesthetic, recreational and cultural interests. Plaintiffs’ lawyers say construction would permanently damage natural landscapes and cultural sites.[1]
Plans distinguish private land from parks
The plans include steel walls about 9 metres tall on private property. Within Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park, the current plans call for patrol roads, vehicle barriers and other security infrastructure rather than walls. The canyon and desert region covers nearly a quarter of the US–Mexico border, with historically low crossing numbers compared with other parts of the Southwest.[1]
