Supreme Court clears the way for border wall construction in Texas's Big Bend to resume

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for the Trump administration to resume border wall construction in the Big Bend region of Texas, a blow to bipartisan opponents who had argued the project is a waste of money that threatens the unique landscape.

The border wall is a signature project of President Donald Trump, who has long vowed to build a wall from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

Republicans in Congress last summer funded the project with $46 billion, and Customs and Border Protection has been rapidly erecting 12 miles of border barriers a week across the entire border.

The government has pushed forward by issuing sweeping waivers to bypass regulations. Those rules are aimed at protecting the environment, but have historically slowed down major construction projects.

In Texas’s Big Bend region, bipartisan opposition has rallied to fight back against the project, which would include 30-foot-tall steel walls in some areas as well as vehicle barriers and new roads.

They’ve argued that the barriers are a waste of money that threaten the local economy and lifestyle in an area of historically low illegal immigration. They say the job could be better done using only surveillance technology like drones.

A judge in Texas sided with opponents, finding that Congress likely had not clearly authorized such broad waivers for an area with the southern border’s lowest rate of migrant apprehensions. She ordered an immediate stop to all construction-related activity in the area, which includes Big Bend National Park as well as land up and down river in state and private hands.

The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal, saying there are illegal border crossings and drug seizures in Big Bend. More traffic could also be funneled there if there’s a gap in the wall, federal attorneys argued.

The Supreme Court agreed that the law sharply limits judges’ powers to intervene when the federal government decides speedy border barrier construction is necessary. The majority paused the lower court decision as the case plays out. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.

The Center for Biological Diversity sued over the construction, along with Friends of the Ruidosa Church and a river guide in the Big Bend area. Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said it was the first time the government had waived a broad set of environmental laws inside a national park.

“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. 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," Jordahl said.

Other opponents include Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who wrote an op-ed arguing against the project published Monday in the San Antonio Express-News.