Federal judge blocks Trump's Big Bend border wall construction

A federal judge in Texas has issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from building border barriers and related infrastructure across the Big Bend region, a major setback for the president’s $46 billion effort to line the southern border with walls, vehicle barriers, roads and surveillance technology (CNN).

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone, of the Western District of Texas, delivered the ruling from the bench in El Paso on Friday, barring “ground-disturbing activities” while the lawsuit plays out. She found the plaintiffs “likely to succeed on the merits,” likely to suffer “serious, irreparable harm without an injunction,” and that the balance of equities and the public interest favoured them.

The suit was filed in April by the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Ruidosa Church and Big Bend-area landowner Danny William Miller against the Department of Homeland Security, challenging the waiver of dozens of environmental laws — including the National Park Service Organic Act and the Endangered Species Act — to fast-track construction inside Big Bend National Park, the first time such a waiver has been used inside a national park (Center for Biological Diversity).

“This is a historic victory for Big Bend and everyone who loves this wild corner of Texas,” said Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “No administration has the right to destroy a crown-jewel national park for political theatre.”

Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.