EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to allow border wall construction to continue along the Big Bend, according to court records.
The appeal filing from the White House came just one day after a federal judge in El Paso filed a blocking of the construction that was ruled on Oct. 2.
In court documents filed Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone argued, “the core of Plaintiffs’ major questions doctrine claim is that the people’s representatives — Congress — did not, in fact, authorize Defendants’ border wall infrastructure construction activities in the Big Bend Sector.”
According to court documents, Solicitor General D. John Sauer described Judge Cardone’s decision “baseless,” and urged the Court to intervene and let the project continue.
The issue stems from two projects by the Department of Homeland Security. If U.S. Customs and Border Protection approves them, the projects would lead to 89 miles of new border wall infrastructure near Big Bend.
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Texas Civil Rights Project filed a lawsuit against the DHS on Sept. 7 over the project.
In a statement provided to ABC-7, The Center for Biological Diversity responded to the Trump Adminstration’s decision with the following statement:
“We’re deeply disappointed that the Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court for a green light to bulldoze one of America’s wildest, most extraordinary landscapes,” said Zeynep Graves, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Once Big Bend’s canyons, cultural treasures and wild ecosystems are destroyed, they’ll be lost forever. We’re confident the law is on our side and that only Congress can authorize something as consequential as walling off the entire U.S.-Mexico border. We won’t stop fighting for Big Bend until it’s protected forever.”
In a social media post Wednesday evening, the General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security released the following statement in support of the decision by the Trump Administration:
The President received a mandate from the American people to build a wall, defeat the cartels, and stop the flow of illegal aliens and dangerous drugs like fentanyl into our country. The Secretary’s authority to build that wall is clear as day, as reflected in DHS’s consistent court victories in similar cases. The court’s order is as unprecedented as it is flawed, and we look forward to the Supreme Court’s expeditious consideration of this important question.
ABC-7 has reached out to the White House for comment.