A judge on Friday blocked further border barrier construction in the Big Bend region, approving an environmental group’s motion for a preliminary injunction.
At the end of Friday’s hearing, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone asked the courtroom to remain calm while she read her order aloud from the bench. She ruled that the plaintiffs’ constitutional claims to halt the construction were likely to succeed and her preliminary injunction against “ground-distrurbing activities” would remain in effect while the suit continued to play out in court.
The legal team at the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group, filed the lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and its secretary in April on behalf of the Friends of the Ruidosa Church, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving a historic church in Presidio County, and Danny William Miller, a Rio Grande river guide and landowner who stands to lose his property in Redford to the wall.
The lawsuit argues that the five contracted border wall projects in the region are unconstitutional for a range of reasons, including violating the constitutional separation of powers and depriving citizens of their land.
The suit documents what could be lost to border barrier construction along the Rio Grande if it’s allowed to proceed. Zeynep Graves, a lawyer with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in her closing arguments that the impact of wall construction in the Big Bend affected the community at all levels.
“The harm reaches far beyond the landscape itself,” she said.
In emotional testimony, Miller compared the government building a wall across his property and blocking his access to the river to “a bullet to the head.”
Miller said once altered, the desert landscapes could never be replaced, and his work as a river guide would become “a tour of the military industrial complex, rather than a tour of the wilderness.”
[…]
In response to the public outcry, DHS officials have countered with hypotheticals about what could happen in Big Bend if migrant traffic shifts in response to wall construction elsewhere along the southern border. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott issued a statement that the agency’s goal was to protect the national park from future cartel activity.
Despite the scale of the opposition, contractors have been bulldozing new roads in the park after the government waived the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Protection Act to support the “expeditious construction of barriers and roads” along the border.
So far, six lawsuits have been filed over the Big Bend wall. On Thursday, a judge rejected a request for a temporary restraining order in a different case that sought to halt work in and around Big Bend National Park, which had been paused through the month of September.
I’ve written about two of those other lawsuits before. I confess I wasn’t aware of this one. I’m also not sure which case that rejected TRO request was from, as Google searches failed me, possibly because the news was dominated by this story. Whatever the case, this was a good result.
The NYT adds some details.
The federal government “shall not build border barrier or related infrastructure, or engage in any construction or ground disturbing activities, in the Big Bend sector,” the judge, Kathleen Cardone, wrote in her order, which she read from the bench.
In a two-page order granting an injunction in the case, the judge said the federal government could not rely on waivers of environmental and other laws it had granted itself to speed up the construction, writing that it “must comply with all applicable laws.” Judge Cardone ruled that the government could not use the waivers until the case was resolved.
She wrote that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of at least one of their claims.
[…]
In a statement, the border protection agency said that it was working “on next steps” with the Justice Department. “We stand by our assessment and remain confident in our legal authorities to secure the border while preserving the unique landscape of the Big Bend region,” the statement said.
The order came days after federal lawyers told the court in a legal filing that the border protection agency would resume barrier construction in several areas in the Big Bend region, though not the national park, after a voluntary pause on activity. The agency also said in the filing that it was revising its plans for the national park — where bulldozers and heavy machinery had already begun operating in August — and would make them public early this month.
I’m happy to get this result, and I hope for more of the same from the other lawsuits. NBC News and the Chron have more.