Judge Freezes Border Wall In Big Bend, A Sector Covering A Quarter Of The Border But Just 1-3% Of Apprehensions

A federal judge in El Paso on Friday halted border wall construction across Texas’s Big Bend region, a stretch of the frontier that accounts for only a sliver of illegal crossings.

US District Judge Kathleen Cardone read her order from the bench, issuing a preliminary injunction against “ground-disturbing activities” that stays in place while the case plays out, the Texas Tribune reports. She found the plaintiffs’ constitutional claims likely to succeed.

The suit was brought by the Center for Biological Diversity on behalf of the Friends of the Ruidosa Church and a local river guide and landowner. It targets the federal waivers that let construction proceed “without following the National Environmental Policy Act, the Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act and many other laws,” per Inside Climate News.

The work in question includes vehicle barriers and access roads inside Big Bend’s state and national parks, plus a 30-foot steel wall on private land outside them. According to the Tribune, there are five contracted wall projects in the region. In May, Customs and Border Protection awarded a $1.7 billion contract for border wall in Big Bend, KWTX reported.

The Big Bend sector covers about a quarter of the length of the US-Mexico border but accounts for only 1% to 3% of Customs and Border Protection’s migrant apprehensions each year, according to the Tribune.

Inside Climate News reports DOJ lawyers “presented few counterarguments and did not present any witnesses.” CBP said it remains “confident in our legal authorities to secure the border.”

At the hearing, Adam Isacson, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, presented data showing Big Bend in “distant last place” in unauthorized crossings among the nine sectors that make up the US border with Mexico, Inside Climate News reports.