Border Construction: High Court Lifts Injunction on Texas Barrier Plans
The Supreme Court ruled that a lower court lacked authority to halt the project, allowing work to resume in the Big Bend region despite environmental objections.
By Marco Ortega ·
Construction crews can return to the Big Bend region of west Texas to build border infrastructure, according to a ruling issued by the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. The decision clears the path for the Trump administration to proceed with plans for hundreds of miles of barriers and security systems while a separate legal challenge continues in the lower courts.
The court issued an unsigned five-page decision stating that the federal judge who previously stopped the work did not have the authority to do so. The justices concluded that the temporary injunction prevented the government from pursuing its stated interests in border security. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only member to dissent from the group.
The ruling affirms that federal law permits the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to waive certain environmental and conservation protections. The court characterized this legal power as a preference for speedy border construction over the specific harms cited by the challengers.
The legal battle began when a federal judge in El Paso issued a temporary injunction. That order halted the installation of 30-foot steel walls, patrol roads, and surveillance equipment. The lawsuit was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, a local nonprofit preserving a historic church near the border, and a private landowner.
Laiken Jordahl of the Center for Biological Diversity said the decision allows contractors to return to the area. She described the next phase of work as involving the dynamiting of canyon walls and the bulldozing of desert terrain. The group argued that the administration's plans are unconstitutional and that residents would suffer irreparable harm if construction continues.
The administration argued in late October that a gap in the border defenses would act as a dangerous magnet for cartels and other actors. Solicitor General John Sauer called the initial injunction baseless and stated that any unbarred section of the border would become a funnel point for crossings that are blocked elsewhere.
Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection indicates that the Big Bend Sector covers nearly 500 miles of the border. This stretch accounts for more than a quarter of the total U.S.-Mexico border length, yet it regularly records the fewest encounters along the Texas border.
