Supreme Court Clears Way for Border Construction in Big Bend, Putting National Park at Risk

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the Trump administration’s emergency request to stay a lower court injunction blocking border wall construction and related infrastructure in and around Big Bend National Park in Texas. The decision allows construction to resume while the underlying legal challenge continues. Damage from started construction is well documented and includes miles of sensitive river habitat and restored riparian areas within Santa Elena Canyon and Mariscal Canyon.

“Big Bend is a national treasure, home to extraordinary wildlife, the Rio Grande, and landscapes that belong to all of us,” said Meghan Riley, Senior Attorney at Earthjustice. “Allowing the administration to bulldoze through these fragile and protected ecosystems puts irreplaceable land at risk. Once this damage is done, there is no simply putting Big Bend back together.”

“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,” said Dave Cortez, Director of the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter. “This Supreme Court decision ignores the bipartisan opposition to a project that threatens some of Texas’s most cherished landscapes. The Sierra Club and our allies will continue pursuing every avenue to protect public and private lands, including supporting state legislation like Representative Eddie Morales Jr.’s bill to prevent border wall construction on state park property.”

In October, a federal judge halted construction after finding that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in their challenge to the administration’s use of extraordinary waiver authority. Earthjustice represents the National Parks Conservation Association and Sierra Club, which filed an amicus brief that supported the Center for Biological Diversity’s Motion that sought to stop construction.

“National park advocates in Texas and across the country are profoundly disheartened to see the highest court in the land greenlight bulldozing through Big Bend National Park to build border infrastructure,” says Tiernan Sittenfeld, President and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association. “Our national parks are meant to be set aside from harmful development and safeguarded under the highest standard possible under American law. We urge the administration to implement alternatives to destructive border barriers and other heavy infrastructure in this wild place.”

 The administration has invoked federal waiver authority to bypass numerous environmental and other legal protections across the Big Bend region, threatening wildlife habitat, the Rio Grande, and treasured public lands. The Supreme Court’s emergency order does not resolve the underlying legal challenge.