The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to resume border wall construction in Texas’s Big Bend region, pausing a lower-court order that had stopped project activity.
The Story
The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for the Trump administration to resume border wall construction in Texas’s Big Bend region, pausing a lower-court ruling that had ordered an immediate stop to construction-related activity there.
The border wall is described as a signature project of President Donald Trump, who has vowed to build a wall from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.
The project received funding last summer when Republicans in Congress provided $46 billion, and Customs and Border Protection has been erecting 12 miles of border barriers a week across the border.
In the Big Bend area, the planned barriers include 30-foot-tall steel walls in some locations, along with vehicle barriers and new roads.
Bipartisan opponents have argued the construction threatens the unique landscape and local economy and lifestyle, and that the work could be handled using surveillance technology such as drones.
Opponents also challenged government waivers used to bypass regulations, saying the environmental rules historically slow down major construction projects.
A Texas judge sided with opponents and ordered an immediate stop to all construction-related activity in the area, including land in and around Big Bend National Park and land up and down the river in state and private hands.
The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal, arguing there are illegal border crossings and drug seizures in Big Bend and warning that more traffic could be funneled there if there is a gap in the wall.
The Supreme Court agreed that the law sharply limits judges’ powers to intervene when the federal government decides speedy border barrier construction is necessary, with the majority pausing the lower court decision. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
← More stories