Trump Seeks Court Nod for Big Bend Wall

The Trump administration on Oct. 21, 2026 filed an emergency Supreme Court application to lift Judge Kathleen Cardone's halt on border construction in Texas's Big Bend region. Cardone ordered the stop on Oct. 2, issued a major-questions opinion on Oct. 14, and denied DHS's appeal on Oct. 21. Secretaries Kristi Noem and Markwayne Mullin had issued three 2026 IIRIRA waivers of environmental laws for the work, including park areas. The case is Mullin v. Friends of the Ruidosa Church, No. 26A560. Bulldozers cleared park land in August 2026. Solicitor General D. John Sauer called the injunction baseless, warned a 300-plus-mile gap would magnetize cartels, and said Cardone misread major-questions precedents and rewrote IIRIRA so clearly the Court can reverse without more briefing. The filing cites over 89,000 Big Bend sector apprehensions from FY2021 to FY2025. Challengers point to the sector's 1.3% share of 2025 apprehensions. Bob Kreumanker of Keep Big Bend Wild called secrecy and refusal to work with locals a cross-party grievance and the project the epitome of government overreach and a betrayal of Texas' Gift to the Nation. Zeynep Graves of the Center for Biological Diversity said the request seeks a green light to bulldoze wild landscapes that would be lost forever and that only Congress can authorize walling the border. The justices have not ruled.