By Steve Gorman<\/p>\n
Oct 2 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Friday barred the Trump administration from building a US-Mexico border barrier through Big Bend National Park in \u200cTexas while courts consider an environmental lawsuit challenging the project.<\/p>\n
The ruling came nearly \u200cseven weeks after US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott paused construction amid bipartisan criticism of the border project \u200band its potential impact on the park’s landscape and wildlife.<\/p>\n
Customs and Border Protection has said it planned to build roads, surveillance technology and vehicle barriers in the national park, rather than the 30-foot-high (9-meter-high) walls in other border areas.<\/p>\n
Crews started clearing land in the park in August, prompting \u200cprotests and lawsuits seeking to halt \u2060the work.<\/p>\n
Scott said he wanted to put the project on hold until he could visit the area, “do a personal evaluation” and speak with \u2060some of the interested parties.<\/p>\n
The preliminary injunction issued by US District Judge Kathleen Cardone effectively prevents Scott from changing his mind. It says the government “shall not build border barrier or related infrastructure, or engage in \u200bany construction \u200bof ground-disturbing activities, in the Big Bend Sector,” \u200bunless it complies with environmental laws.<\/p>\n
The \u200clawsuit was brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, a group called Friends of the Ruidosa Church and a Big Bend-area river guide and landowner.<\/p>\n
Cardone ruled that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail on at least some of their claims once the lawsuit is fully considered, and would face serious, irreparable harm without an injunction.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs asserted that the Trump administration, \u200cincluding Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, had improperly granted \u200ba sweeping waiver of environmental statutes to fast-track the \u200bBig Bend border plan.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump, \u200ba Republican, has long touted building or reinforcing barriers along the southern \u200cUS border to deter illegal immigration.<\/p>\n
But his \u200badministration’s push to extend \u200bborder infrastructure into Big Bend, around 250 miles (400 km) southeast of El Paso, faced opposition from local officials, conservationists and some Texas Republicans.<\/p>\n
US Senator John Cornyn, a Texas \u200bRepublican, has urged Homeland Security \u200cofficials to consult with local leaders and reconsider proposed barriers in Big Bend, arguing \u200bthat the area’s rugged terrain already provides a natural deterrent.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Steve \u200bGorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Steve Gorman Oct 2 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Friday barred the Trump administration from building…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-454837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}