Kathleen Cardone

In a significant legal setback for the Trump administration's immigration agenda, a federal judge in El Paso, Texas, has issued a preliminary injunction halting all border barrier construction across the expansive Big Bend sector.

US District Judge Kathleen Cardone granted the order following more than four hours of court testimony, blocking federal contractors and the Department of Homeland Security from carrying out any further ground-disturbing activities.

The ruling halts infrastructure work across a five-hundred-mile stretch of West Texas, directly protecting Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, and environmentally sensitive lands along the Rio Grande while a federal lawsuit challenging the project moves forward.

The court order stems from a federal lawsuit filed in April by the Center for Biological Diversity alongside local property owners and regional preservation advocates.