Supreme Court Allows Border Wall Through Big Bend National Park
The U.S. Supreme Court on November 9, 2026, allowed the Trump administration to build a border wall through a remote section of Big Bend National Park in West Texas. The court granted the government's emergency request to lift a lower court's injunction, an order that had paused construction while the case was litigated. Al Jazeera reported the decision.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone had blocked the Big Bend wall construction in October. The Trump administration then asked the Supreme Court to allow the work to proceed, and its Big Bend barrier plan included barriers inside the national park. The park's mountains and desert are home to endangered species, including the Mexican long-nosed bat.
The project rests on waivers. A waiver is a legal tool that sets aside certain laws so that a project can move faster. In 2026, the Homeland Security secretary issued three waivers to speed barrier construction in the Big Bend Sector, a section of the border patrolled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. A Department of Homeland Security determination said construction there is appropriate and necessary because of law enforcement and security concerns.
The lawsuit was brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Ruidosa Church, and a local river guide and landowner. They challenged the waivers. Without them, the plaintiffs said, construction would have to comply with the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act, three federal laws that govern environmental and historic protections.
Judge Cardone found that the Big Bend sector makes up more than 25 percent of the U.S.-Mexico border but accounts for only 0.3 to 2.2 percent of migrant apprehensions. Her ruling was among the steps that led to the injunction.
In its order, the Supreme Court said the government was "exceedingly likely to prevail" on its argument that Judge Cardone lacked jurisdiction under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, a federal immigration law. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only justice to indicate she would have denied the government's request.
