The Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of President Donald Trump’s push to resume building a border wall along the remote stretch of Texas’ Big Bend region, which includes a national park.
The 8-1 decision will allow the federal government to resume construction of roughly 340 miles of wall and surveillance infrastructure in the Big Bend Sector, which spans more than 500 miles of border. Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only justice to note a dissent from the unsigned order.
Rodney Scott, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), said the federal government is “moving forward with critical border security construction in West Texas,” but added that his agency “has re-evaluated the terrain, listened to local stakeholders, and made meaningful adjustments that will secure this critical stretch of border while preserving the unique landscape and public access for generations to come.”
Environmental advocates were quick to condemn the high court’s decision.
Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, called the ruling “horrific,” saying it “clears the way for contractors to bulldoze pristine desert and dynamite canyon walls before the courts have even decided whether this destruction is legal.”
“The Trump administration and its contractors are hellbent on destroying one of America’s greatest national parks, and the Supreme Court just gave them the green light,” Jordahl said.
“They’re signing off on the permanent destruction of the wildest place in Texas, and the theft of a great American river from all of us,” he added.
The border wall construction in Big Bend National Park has drawn bipartisan criticism from landowners, environmentalists, and local law enforcement.
Republican Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland, a former Border Patrol agent, opposed the plan and previously told The Daily Wire the rugged mountains in the area provide “big natural barriers” that keep crossings low. Instead, he said the area could use more cameras and drones.
Activists sued to stop construction in April, arguing that waivers the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued to speed up the project were a significant overreach that allowed the feds to skirt the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, according to The New York Times. A federal judge temporarily halted the construction in October, saying the legal challenge was likely to succeed.
The Trump administration asked the judge to pause the ruling while it sent an appeal to the Supreme Court, the Times reported. The judge ultimately declined, prompting the administration to file an emergency application with the high court.
.png)
.png)
