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Trump Seeks Supreme Court Approval for Big Bend Border Wall
Confirmed
In Short: The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to lift an injunction that bars construction of a border wall in the Big Bend sector of Texas.
The Justice Department urged the Supreme Court to lift a lower court injunction that temporarily bars the Department of Homeland Security from building the barrier or related infrastructure in the Big Bend Sector, which covers more than 500 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border and 77 counties in Texas.
The Trump administration argues that a border barrier and roads are needed in the Big Bend sector, saying a 300-mile gap would 'act as a dangerous magnet for cartels and other bad actors.'
The Big Bend region covers around a quarter of the U.S.-Mexico border and saw just 1.3% of all border apprehensions in 2025.
Opponents argue that the Big Bend region does not fit the description of 'high illegal entry.'
The Trump administration claims the construction pause is costing over $460,000 a day due to the 'scale' of the project.
In the emergency application filed Wednesday, the government called the injunction 'baseless' and argued that its border security and operation interests 'vastly outweigh any aesthetic, recreational, or cultural injuries' suffered by the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs, who are a group of locals consisting of a river guide and a church preservation group, urged the court to prevent the administration from restarting construction, alleging the administration overstepped its authority on multiple fronts and warned it could harm the environment.
The government said more than 89,000 people were apprehended trying to cross into the U.S. illegally in the Big Bend Sector between 2021 and 2025.
While the area covers more than 25% of the U.S.-Mexico border, annual apprehensions in the Big Bend Sector ranged between 0.3% and 2.2% of total border-wide apprehensions, according to court filings.
Background
The new Supreme Court term began on October 5, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is expecting another busy term, possibly surpassing last year's record of six cases decided on the merits docket.
What's confirmed
- But when then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced the project earlier this year, she invoked a 1996 federal immigration law that gives the secretary the authority to waive all legal requirements deemed necessary to ensure quick construction of physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the southern border to "deter illegal crossings in areas of high illegal entry."
- Sauer said this leaves a 300-plus-mile gap in border defenses and it would "act as a dangerous magnet for cartels and other bad actors to exploit."
What's still developing
- Bush had blocked the federal government from building several hundred miles of the border wall until the government secured all necessary waivers to build in the national park.
- Greg Abbott said that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him there would be "no construction of any type of barrier at Big Bend National Park." By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy.
- District Judge Kathleen Cardone's order states the groups challenging construction in Big Bend are "likely to succeed on the merits of at least one of the claims" and that "there is a likelihood that they will suffer serious, irreparable harm" without the court's intervention.
- Last summer, Republicans in Congress allocated Homeland Security $46 billion to finish the project, which will be a mixture of 30-foot-tall steel bollard walls, vehicle barriers and surveillance technology.
- Customs and Border Protection to bypass environmental and other regulations that would otherwise slow down construction of such a major project.
- "the core of Plaintiffs’ major questions doctrine claim is that the people’s representatives — Congress — did not, in fact, authorize Defendants’ border wall infrastructure construction activities in the Big Bend Sector."
- John Sauer described Judge Cardone's decision “baseless,” and urged the Court to intervene and let the project continue.
- “Workers there had already constructed about three quarters of a mile of border barrier, and temporary field offices, supply yards, a water delivery system, and a temporary concrete batch plant had been installed,” the emergency application read.
- Cardone issued a written opinion detailing her reasoning on Oct. 14.
- John Sauer pleaded to the high court to lift a “baseless injunction that halts a major portion of the construction of the border wall,” issued by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas earlier this month.
- “Only this district court has seen fit to trample Congress’s clear authorization of waivers to facilitate border-wall construction and its equally clear judicial-review bar by repackaging a statutory-authority argument in constitutional garb,” Sauer wrote.
- “The court illogically concluded that respondents’ aesthetic and recreational harms ‘outweigh’ the government’s extraordinarily strong border-security and operational interests in ensuring that 25% of the U.S.-Mexico border has adequate protective barriers,” Sauer wrote in his emergency petition.