Judge halts more than $6 billion in Big Bend border wall work

Wall includes 30-foot steel bollards, barriers, surveillance

US District Judge Kathleen Cardone on Friday temporarily halted border infrastructure work across the Big Bend region of west Texas, blocking the Trump administration’s plans to install 6-foot-tall vehicle barriers and new roads through Big Bend National Park. The order came after a hearing in El Paso in a lawsuit filed by the Friends of the Ruidosa church, the Center for Biological Diversity and river guide Billy Miller, who sought to overturn several Department of Homeland Security waivers that had suspended dozens of federal environmental and historical protection laws. Cardone blocked the DHS waivers, finding the plaintiffs were likely to win and would suffer irreparable harm if construction moved forward.

The ruling bars CBP from border security infrastructure construction or ground disturbance unless it complies with the federal laws DHS tried to suspend. The Big Bend region contains the longest unwalled stretch along the US-Mexico border.

“This is a historic victory for Big Bend and everyone who loves this wild corner of Texas,” said Laiken Jordahl, a public land advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. “No administration has the right to destroy a crown-jewel national park for political theatre.”

“But this fight is far from over,” Jordahl added. “We won’t rest until Big Bend’s environmental protections are fully restored and the illegal waiver that allowed so much destruction is gone for good.”

In response to the ruling, a CBP spokesperson wrote in an email: “We stand by our assessment and remain confident in our legal authorities to secure the border while preserving the unique landscape of the Big Bend region. We are working with the Department of Justice on next steps.”

CBP had awarded five contracts for Big Bend totaling more than $6 billion to expand what the agency calls the “smart wall” — a mix of 30-foot steel bollard fencing, vehicle barriers and surveillance technology. The Republican-dominated Congress included $46.5 billion for border wall construction in last year’s “big, beautiful” spending bill, an allocation that led CBP to focus much of its effort on the Big Bend region.

Images of bulldozers plowing up ground for new roads within the park in August prompted CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott to temporarily halt construction. Construction resumed in September, and crews installed the first sections of a new border wall in the region on Sept. 16, 2026, according to a photograph by Associated Press photographer Scott McWilliams that accompanied the Guardian’s report.

Local opposition has been bipartisan. Local business owners, landowners, public land advocates and politicians from both parties have objected to the project, with landowners and local political leaders noting that unauthorized crossings are already rare in the region because of its remoteness, the lack of nearby cities on the Mexican side, and prominent cliffs that make many border stretches difficult to cross.