The US supreme court has allowed Donald Trump to continue his administration’s construction of a border wall in Texas’s Big Bend region, including parts of Big Bend national park.
In an unsigned, five-page ruling, the nation’s highest court granted the Trump administration’s emergency request to suspend a lower court order that had temporarily stopped the project last month.
Liberal justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only member of the nine-member court to dissent from the ruling.
The justices wrote that the case’s plaintiffs, which include the Center for Biological Diversity, a Big Bend river guide and a church preservation group, “claim that construction in the Big Bend sector will diminish their ability to use and enjoy the area”.
However, they noted: “But Congress’s enactment of [immigration law] – which permits the secretary [of homeland security] to waive the requirements of environmental-protection and other conservation laws – reflects a clear preference for expeditious border construction over the very harms respondents assert.
“The government’s interest therefore outweighs any aesthetic, recreational, and environmental harm alleged by respondents,” the justices said.
The Trump administration plans to construct more than 300 miles of six-foot-tall vehicle barriers and supporting roads, relying on a 1996 law that authorizes the homeland security secretary to “waive all legal requirements”, including environmental and conservation protections, in areas designated as having high levels of illegal border crossings.
The plaintiffs argue that the project threatens wildlife and public lands, could destroy “iconic sections” of the Rio Grande’s protected river corridor, and would undermine the “carefully wrought web of laws meant to protect a vast universe of biological, historic, cultural, and other interests”.
The border wall plans have also faced bipartisan opposition from local residents, many of whom warn that construction could threaten their livelihoods and disrupt their communities.
A Customs and Border Protections map shows plans for barriers and patrol roads across Big Bend national park, including remote areas that would require extensive dynamite blasting. Construction is also planned in isolated canyons where there have been no documented unauthorized vehicle crossings and where vehicles cannot reach the US-Mexico border, the Center for Biological Diversity noted.
According to Rodney Scott, the CBP commissioner, the wall, which is being built out at about 12 miles a week, is expected to be completed by the end of Trump’s second term.
The Center for Biological Diversity condemned the supreme court’s decision, saying: “This horrific decision clears the way for contractors to bulldoze pristine desert and dynamite canyon walls before the courts have even decided whether this destruction is legal. They’re signing off on the permanent destruction of the wildest place in Texas, and the theft of a great American river from all of us.
“The destruction we’ve already seen in Big Bend unleashed a firestorm of outrage so severe that the administration was forced to pause its plans. If the bulldozers return now, public opposition will only grow … The damage done to Big Bend will be felt for future generations of Texans and Americans, and this administration will bear responsibility for the natural heritage we lose,” the center added.
CBP has awarded five contracts worth more than $6bn for border security upgrades in Big Bend, including 30-ft steel fencing, vehicle barriers and surveillance technology, which the agency calls its “smart wall”.
Following a federal judge’s ruling that temporarily halted the construction in October, CBP said at the time: “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 Guardian has reached out to CBP for comment on the supreme court’s latest ruling.
