The Supreme Court Just Gave Trump Approval to Build a Border Wall in Big Bend National Park
Bulldozers may soon tear into the rock cliffs and desert sand in Big Bend National Park to erect parts of the Trump Administration’s controversial border barrier.
On November 9, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the federal government the green light to resume construction on barriers, fences, and surveillance equipment along the U.S.-Mexico border in a remote corner of Texas that includes Big Bend National Park.
In an unsigned opinion, the court ruled that Congress has expressed “clear preference for expeditious border construction.” The government’s desire to limit immigration overrules any “aesthetic, recreational, and environmental harm,” the court added.
The court ruled 8-1. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented with the decision.
The Center for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit that challenged the construction, blasted the decision in a statement.
“The Trump Administration and its contractors are hellbent on destroying one of America’s greatest national parks, and the Supreme Court just gave them the green light,” Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said on Facebook.
A Major Court Decision After Months of Legal Battles
The ruling marks a groundbreaking decision in a months-long game of political football between the Trump Administration and a growing number of advocates, Texas locals, and lawmakers who opposed the construction.
Officials with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security have said that the barriers along stretches of the Rio Grande and Big Bend National Park are needed to curb illegal immigrants from entering the U.S. from Mexico.
Advocates and local property owners in Texas have argued that the number of illegal crossings in the Big Bend region is negligible, and that construction would irreparably damage the pristine landscape, hurt local flora and fauna, and destroy local businesses that rely on the landscape for tourism and agriculture. In April, a coalition of opponents to the project filed suit to block the construction.
In August, construction crews arrived in the Big Bend region and began clearing swaths of desert for bollards and fencing. But construction ground to a halt after state politicians put pressure on Trump administration officials. And on October 2, a federal judge overseeing the legal case ruled that the construction should stop because it threatened to harm a group of plaintiffs who had sued to stop it.
The border wall plan drew ire from officials on both sides of the political spectrum. On November 9, Texas Senator John Cornyn, a Republican, published an op-ed in the San Antonio Express-News titled “The Case Against the Big Bend Border Wall.”
“Texans should not have to bear another unnecessary financial burden caused by building a 30-foot wall atop a 1,000-foot riverbank cliff,” Cornyn wrote.
Groups Condemn the Supreme Court Decision on Big Bend National Park
After the Supreme Court decision on November 9, environmental groups and other opponents voiced their disapproval on social media.
“We are outraged by the Supreme Court’s decision allowing Trump’s border wall construction to resume in Big Bend National Park,” the Sierra Club posted on X. “This destructive project threatens irreplaceable wildlife habitat, sacred cultural sites, and one of America’s most treasured landscapes.”
In a statement, Cary Dupuy, Texas Regional Director for the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), said the decision would have “profound consequences.”
“Our national parks are meant to be set aside from harmful development and safeguarded under the highest standard possible under American law,” Dupy said. “Regardless of the court’s decision, we urge the administration to implement alternatives to damaging border barriers and other heavy infrastructure in this wild place. There is still a chance for us to save Big Bend, and there is still an opportunity for the administration to change course.”
Meghan Riley, senior attorney with the environmental advocacy group Earthjustice, called Big Bend a “national treasure.”
“allowing the administration to bulldoze through these fragile and protected ecosystems puts irreplaceable land at risk,” Riley said in a statement. “Once this damage is done, there is no simply putting Big Bend back together.”
Dave Cortez, director of the Sierra Club’s Lone Star chapter, pointed out the bipartisan anger at the border construction within Texas.
“Millions of Texans turned out to vote for change last week, and Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike have spoken out against the Trump administration’s reckless and destructive plans to bulldoze the treasured borderlands of Far West Texas and the greater Big Bend region,” Cortez said in a statement. “This Supreme Court decision ignores the bipartisan opposition to a project that threatens some of Texas’s most cherished landscapes.”
This is a developing story.
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