Trump admin turns to SCOTUS in Big Bend border wall case

The Trump administration filed an emergency petition with the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday after a federal judge again blocked it from constructing a border wall system in the Big Bend region of Texas.

In his written petition with the court, Solicitor General D. John Sauer said the lower court’s injunction was "baseless” and the federal judge appointed by former President George W. Bush “illogically concluded that respondents’ aesthetic and recreational harms 'outweigh' the government’s extraordinarily strong border-security and operational interests in ensuring that 25% of the U.S.-Mexico border has adequate protective barriers."

Sauer argued that the federal government’s “paramount interest in preventing a quarter of the border from becoming a magnet for cartel exploitation” outweighs any interest Texans may have in opposing border wall construction.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by multiple groups to halt the Department of Homeland Security from building a border wall and barriers system in the Big Bend region of southwest Texas. She ordered DHS to halt building “border barrier or related infrastructure, or engage in any construction or ground disturbing activities, in the Big Bend Sector until and unless Defendants comply with all applicable laws,” The Center Square reported.

The order impacts roughly 500 miles of the southwest border, where illegal crossings have historically been the lowest in Texas and the entire southwest border. Under the Biden administration, illegal entries reached a record high in the region but were still the lowest in Texas and across the southwest border, The Center Square reported.

There are currently little to no illegal crossings in the region, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

The administration appealed to the Supreme Court asking it to intervene and demanded that Cardone issue a memo she said she planned to issue on the matter.

She has since issued the memo and again ruled against the administration on Tuesday. In her six-page ruling, she said the administration “informed the Court on October 16 that if no decision is issued by October 21, they ‘will treat the absence of a ruling as a constructive denial of the motion and proceed with seeking relief in the United States Supreme Court.’”

One of the key issues in the case involves DHS waiving dozens of federal and state laws to plow through historic and environmentally protected regions of the state. The groups who sued argue the waivers are unconstitutional and violate federal law, which only allows waivers to be made in emergency situations. They argue the waivers can’t apply to Big Bend because of little to no illegal crossings and cartel crime in the region.

Cardone said the plaintiff’s “irreversible environmental, aesthetic, economic, and recreational harms outweigh defendants’ inability to construct new border wall infrastructure for reasons” she previously made. She also reiterated the same conclusion she made in her first ruling and said she was keeping her injunction in place.

More than 1,000 Texans have petitioned Congress to halt Big Bend border wall construction, arguing the regional economy and Texan way of life would be irreparably harmed, The Center Square reported. The administration’s plan to use eminent domain to take Texans’ land and businesses has sparked bipartisan statewide outrage.