US Supreme Court allows Trump border wall work to resume in Texas Big Bend
The US Supreme Court has allowed Donald Trump’s administration to resume border wall construction in Texas’s Big Bend region, including parts of Big Bend National Park, after granting an emergency request to lift a lower-court pause imposed last month. In an unsigned five-page ruling, the justices held that a 1996 immigration law letting the homeland security secretary waive environmental and other conservation rules shows Congress’s preference for fast border building over the aesthetic, recreational and environmental harms claimed by plaintiffs, among them the Center for Biological Diversity, a Big Bend river guide and a church preservation group. Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only justice to dissent.
The administration plans more than 300 miles of six-foot vehicle barriers and supporting roads in areas designated for high levels of illegal crossings. Plaintiffs say the work threatens wildlife and public lands, could destroy iconic stretches of the Rio Grande’s protected corridor, and would unravel laws meant to protect biological, historic and cultural interests. A Customs and Border Protection map shows barriers and patrol roads across the park, including remote terrain that would need extensive dynamite blasting and isolated canyons with no documented unauthorized vehicle crossings. Local residents have also opposed the project on livelihood and community grounds.
CBP commissioner Rodney Scott said construction is advancing at about 12 miles a week and is meant to finish by the end of Trump’s second term. The agency has awarded five contracts worth more than $6bn for Big Bend upgrades, including 30-foot steel fencing, vehicle barriers and surveillance technology it calls a “smart wall.” After an October federal-court halt, CBP said it remained confident in its legal authority while preserving the landscape. The Center for Biological Diversity condemned the Supreme Court decision as clearing the way to bulldoze desert and dynamite canyon walls before courts decide whether the destruction is legal. The Guardian has asked CBP for comment on the latest ruling.
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