Federal judge halts $6 billion border wall project across Texas Big Bend sector
US District Judge Kathleen Cardone issued a preliminary injunction on Friday prohibiting construction across more than 500 miles of the Texas border after finding that DHS improperly bypassed federal environmental laws.
Injunction in El Paso
On Friday, 2 October 2026, United States District Judge Kathleen Cardone issued a preliminary injunction halting border wall construction across the Big Bend sector in west Texas. Cardone, presiding over the US District Court for the Western District of Texas in El Paso, ruled that the federal government cannot rely on administrative waivers to bypass federal environmental and historical protection laws. In her two-page order read from the bench, Cardone ordered that the government must not build border barriers or related infrastructure, nor engage in any ground-disturbing activities within the sector without complying with applicable federal statutes. The judge determined that plaintiffs demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits and faced serious and irreparable harm without court intervention.
Scope of the Big Bend project
The court order halts infrastructure works across a border sector spanning more than 500 miles (approximately 800 kilometres), which represents roughly one-fourth of the 3,200-kilometre frontier between the United States and Mexico. Planned installations include 30-foot-tall steel bollard walls, six-foot vehicle barriers, patrol roads, and electronic surveillance systems. Customs and Border Protection had already awarded five contracts totaling more than $6 billion for construction in the Big Bend sector alone. The regional project is part of a broader border program estimated in government plans between $46 billion and $46.5 billion under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
- Environmental and local groups file a lawsuit challenging DHS environmental waivers
- CBP pauses construction inside Big Bend National Park following public protests
- CBP internal pause on construction within the national park expires
- Federal court issues preliminary injunction halting construction across the sector
Legal challenge by regional plaintiffs
The lawsuit was filed in April 2026 by attorneys from the Center for Biological Diversity on behalf of multiple local entities. The plaintiffs include Friends of the Ruidosa Church, a non-profit group seeking to protect a historic church in Presidio County, and Danny William Miller, a Rio Grande river guide and landowner in Redford. During court proceedings, county resident Bill Guerra-Addington testified that the proposed barrier would devastate private riverfront ranches. Miller spoke outside the El Paso courthouse following the ruling:
We dodged a bullet today. It means that we can continue to introduce people to the wildness. Their plan was going to ruin the experience of anybody going out there.
Prior halts and local resistance
The ruling follows months of stop-and-start construction activity that sparked opposition across west Texas. In August 2026, heavy machinery entered Big Bend National Park to clear ground for access roads, drawing public protests and prompting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott to order an internal pause on park work. That agency-ordered halt expired on 30 September 2026, allowing work to resume before Friday's injunction. Similar resistance emerged downriver in San Ygnacio, a town of roughly 400 residents in Zapata County, where 90-year-old landowner Joel Ruiz and neighbours blocked machinery in July to protect private riverfront land. Laiken Jordahl, a public land advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity who attended the hearing, addressed the outcome:
This is a historic victory for Big Bend and everyone who loves this wild corner of Texas. No administration has the right to destroy a crown-jewel national park for political theatre.
