Judge Blocks Trump's Border Wall Expansion Through Big Bend National Park

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone issued a temporary injunction on October 2, 2026, halting construction of a planned 30-foot steel wall and related infrastructure through the Big Bend region, part of the administration's $46 billion border initiative. Cardone found the plaintiffs, including the Center for Biological Diversity, advocates for a historic church in Ruidosa, and river guides challenging DHS's regulatory waivers, were "likely to succeed on the merits" and that the balance of harms favored them. Crews had already erected the first wall panels in mid-September, after bulldozers cleared Big Bend National Park land in August, drawing bipartisan opposition from Texas officials. A CBP pause on park activity had expired September 30.

DHS used emergency authority to waive roughly two dozen environmental and historic-preservation laws for this stretch, the same waivers at issue in a lawsuit residents and conservation groups filed in April. Courts have generally given the executive wide latitude on border infrastructure, so an injunction grounded in the merits of that waiver challenge is a more significant check than a routine construction delay.

CBP said it is "working with the Department of Justice on next steps," and the administration is "reevaluating plans" for the park.