On Monday, November 9, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to restart building a border barrier and roads across the Big Bend region of West Texas — including through Big Bend National Park.
To do it, the administration waived dozens of environmental laws. Among them, according to the lawsuit challenging the project, were the Endangered Species Act, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and the law that created the National Park Service.
A Republican-appointed judge stopped it
The lawsuit was filed in April by the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Ruidosa Church, and Danny William Miller Jr., a local river guide. It is one of six lawsuits trying to stop the wall in Big Bend, the Texas Tribune reported.
In August, bulldozers had already begun leveling part of the national park, Common Dreams reported. On October 2, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone — appointed by President George W. Bush — halted the work. She found the challengers were likely to prove the administration had gone beyond its power to waive environmental rules in a region with historically low levels of illegal crossings.
The administration went straight to the Supreme Court. On Monday, in an unsigned 8–1 order, the justices put Cardone's ruling on hold while the case continues. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. "The Government's interest therefore outweighs any aesthetic, recreational, and environmental harm alleged by respondents," the order says.
The order is temporary. But temporary doesn't help a canyon. Once a wall goes up and a road is cut, a win in court later can't put the desert back.
What's coming
Customs and Border Protection plans vehicle barriers and patrol roads across the national park, including in the remote Mariscal Mountain area — work that would require "extensive dynamite blasting," according to the Center for Biological Diversity.
"This horrific decision clears the way for contractors to bulldoze pristine desert and dynamite canyon walls before the courts have even decided whether this destruction is legal," said Laiken Jordahl, the group's public lands advocate. "They're signing off on the permanent destruction of the wildest place in Texas, and the theft of a great American river from all of us."
For 1.6% of the border's crossings
Here's the part that should make every taxpayer angry.
The Border Patrol's Big Bend sector covers 517 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. It accounts for about 1.6% of migrant apprehensions along the whole border, according to the Texas Tribune. People who live there have said the rough, empty terrain already makes crossing dangerous.
The administration has still handed out $7.5 billion in contracts to pave roads, build barriers and install technology in the area. And it told the Supreme Court that the court-ordered pause was costing the government $500,000 a day.
So: billions of dollars, a national park torn up, and the rules that protect endangered animals and wild rivers tossed aside — for one of the quietest stretches of the entire border.
This keeps happening
Big Bend isn't the first protected place the wall has torn through. In Arizona, tribal elders warned that the wall at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument would dig up their ancestors — and fifteen days later, contractors did. In South Texas, Congress had specifically protected the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, and Republican Monica De La Cruz voted for a bill that got around it.
Even Texas Republicans have balked at this one. Governor Greg Abbott himself pressured the Department of Homeland Security to pause the Big Bend project, as we reported.
What we know
The Trump administration waived environmental laws including the Endangered Species Act to build a border barrier and roads through Big Bend National Park, began bulldozing in August, and was stopped in October by a George W. Bush–appointed judge who found it had likely overstepped. On November 9, the Supreme Court let construction resume 8–1 while the case continues. The project has $7.5 billion in contracts in a Border Patrol sector that accounts for about 1.6% of border apprehensions.
Source
This post is based on reporting by The Texas Tribune and Common Dreams.
