Judge Blocks Trump Administration From Building Border Wall Across Texas' Big Bend Region

A federal judge in El Paso put the brakes on one of the most contested pieces of the Trump administration's border wall buildout Friday, ruling that construction across Texas's Big Bend region likely violated federal law.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone, appointed by President George W. Bush, granted a preliminary injunction after a hearing that ran more than four hours, according to Inside Climate News. Her order bars Customs and Border Protection from "any construction or ground disturbing activities" across the entire Big Bend sector, which stretches roughly 500 miles and covers about a quarter of the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, per The Guardian and PBS/Associated Press reporting.

Cardone wrote that the plaintiffs are "likely to succeed on the merits of at least one of the claims in suit" and would suffer "serious, irreparable harm" without the injunction. The ruling covers Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park and the rest of the sector along the Rio Grande, according to the Texas Tribune.

Who sued and why

The lawsuit, filed in April by the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Ruidosa Church and river guide Danny William Miller, targets a stack of waivers signed by then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that suspended environmental, historical and archaeological protection laws to fast-track construction, the Texas Tribune reported. Noem has since left the post; the Department of Homeland Security is now run by Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who is named as a defendant, according to Inside Climate News.

Noem's own waiver language, cited by the Texas Tribune, argued "DHS has delivered the most secure border in history" but that "more can be done." The plaintiffs argue the waivers went too far, bypassing the National Environmental Policy Act and the Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act, among other statutes, and that the project violates the Constitution's separation of powers, per court filings reported by Fox 7 Austin.

Danny Miller testified that a wall cutting through his property near Redford would be like "a bullet to the head" and would turn his river-guide business into "a tour of the military industrial complex," according to the Texas Tribune. Hudspeth County rancher Bill Guerra-Addington testified a barrier would be a "death sentence" for his ranch along the river.

The money and the math

Congress set aside $46.5 billion for border wall construction in last year's reconciliation bill, and CBP has already awarded five contracts worth more than $6 billion for the Big Bend sector alone, the Guardian reported. The infrastructure plan includes 30-foot steel bollard fencing, vehicle barriers, patrol roads and surveillance technology CBP calls the "smart wall."

The Big Bend sector saw only 1.3 percent of all border apprehensions in 2025, according to Fox 7 Austin, with the Texas Tribune putting the range at 1 to 3 percent annually. That's a quarter of the border's length producing a sliver of the illegal crossings CBP is supposedly stopping.

DHS's position, laid out in Noem's own waiver language, is that "operational control" of the border means zero unauthorized crossings everywhere, not just where crossings are currently concentrated. Sealing off busier corridors elsewhere can push smugglers into exactly the remote stretches critics call unnecessary. Whether that justifies $6 billion in contracts for a sector with a 1 to 3 percent apprehension share is a legitimate policy argument.

Construction had already resumed once

This isn't the first time the project has stalled. Bulldozer images from inside Big Bend National Park in August triggered bipartisan outrage, and CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott temporarily halted construction, according to the Guardian. That pause ended Wednesday, September 30, Fox 7 Austin reported, days before Friday's injunction. The first wall panels in the sector went up in mid-September, per ABC News and PBS.

In court filings submitted Tuesday night, the administration said it was looking to "reduce the scope" of the project, Fox 7 Austin reported, though it hadn't detailed what that means and was not planning to restart construction for several weeks even before Friday's ruling. CBP has said it won't build a large wall inside the national park itself but is pursuing other construction there and still appears to be planning wall segments elsewhere in the sector, according to The Hill.

What happens next

A CBP spokesperson told The Hill the agency "stand[s] by our assessment and remain[s] confident in our legal authorities to secure the border" and is "working with the Department of Justice on next steps." Language suggesting a likely appeal to the Fifth Circuit. Neither CBP nor DHS responded to requests for comment from the Associated Press or PBS on the ruling itself.

Laiken Jordahl of the Center for Biological Diversity called it a "historic victory" but acknowledged the fight isn't over. The injunction only holds while the underlying lawsuit plays out, and Cardone hasn't yet ruled on the merits. Until she does, or until an appeals court intervenes, the bulldozers stay parked across all 500 miles of the Big Bend sector.