Border Wall Push Defies Court Pause in Big Bend

A judge ordered a pause on border-wall construction in Big Bend earlier this month. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott is defending the $46 billion project, saying fortifying the border is “non-negotiable.” The administration has asked the Supreme Court to lift the order. A national park, local communities and immigrant workers whose labor keeps farms and food production running are caught beneath that machinery.

Those Who Bear the Cost

A bipartisan coalition of landowners, local businesses and environmentalists opposes the wall. They call it a waste of taxpayer money and warn it could damage a region with historically low migrant crossings. The court found plaintiffs were likely to “suffer serious, irreparable harm without an injunction.” The same administration pressing ahead with construction elsewhere along the border is now challenging that pause.

More than 40 farmers and agricultural industry groups also warned President Donald Trump and congressional leaders that the immigration crackdown is hurting producers and threatening the food supply. Their letter said: “Targeting immigrant workers who have not committed crimes and blocking workforce solutions for agriculture devastates agricultural producers, drives up food costs for all Americans and makes our nation more dependent on other countries.”

About 66% of the country’s farmworkers are foreign-born. Industry leaders said Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps near major meatpacking plants delayed cattle and livestock operations, shipments and harvesting in southwest Kansas. They also reported farm-worker arrests in California’s Central Valley and threats to poultry production in Pennsylvania farm country. The costs don’t stop with workers targeted by raids. Grocery prices could rise, too, the groups warned.

Christian Herr, a signatory and president of the PennAg Industries Association, said: “We’ve been at odds lately with [the Trump administration], especially when folks ... suddenly become the targets of ICE raids.” He added: “You couple that with pressures from tariffs, high fertilizer costs and supply chain disruptions [and] some of the president’s most loyal supporters are fading fast.” The letter marks a shift for an industry that generally avoided publicly criticizing raids, detention and deportation, and instead lobbied privately.

The Wall and Its Apparatus

Scott, a former Border Patrol agent whom Trump tapped to complete the project, leads the agency responsible for carrying it out. Republicans in Congress funded the plan last summer. It calls for a mix of 30-foot steel walls, vehicle barriers, new roads and surveillance technology along the roughly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.

The administration says it is building about 12 miles a week. Scott gets daily progress updates and said the project would be complete by the end of Trump’s second term, with the primary border wall finished by the end of December 2027. Some areas are also set to receive a secondary layer. “We’re actually ahead of schedule,” Scott said.

Bulldozers tore up ground in Big Bend National Park in August. Scott said he then ordered a pause on all construction-related activity there while he spoke with people in the region. The agency is reaching out to locals about building without marring the park, he said, but he declined to discuss specific plans because of ongoing lawsuits. He reiterated that the project wouldn’t include tall steel walls there.

Scott said natural barriers aren’t enough to prevent illegal entry through more navigable points. He warned that cartels controlling smuggling from Mexico could exploit openings. The agency’s goal of knowing what enters and leaves the country was “non-negotiable,” he said. Control is the stated goal. The court’s order and local opposition remain in the way.

Work Permits, Raids and Election Season

The agriculture groups called on Congress to provide work permits for long-term agriculture workers, citing a bill introduced that year by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-Pennsylvania). Their appeal came a little more than a week before the November 3 midterm elections. The proposed legislative route comes alongside reported raids already disrupting farms and workers.

CBP has 67,000 employees. The agency controls who and what enters through official crossings, while also stopping smuggling and migration outside them. It came under scrutiny last year when officers went into cities far from the border to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement carry out Trump’s immigration crackdown. During protests against an operation in Minneapolis, a Border Patrol officer and a CBP officer fired shots in an encounter that killed U.S. citizen Alex Pretti. The administration later wound down high-profile city-based crackdowns.

Scott said CBP still helps ICE but is less involved in immigration enforcement far from the border since ICE hired more officers. He declined to comment on the ongoing FBI investigation into Pretti’s death. Asked about Gregory Bovino’s tactics, Scott said Bovino didn’t report to him during the operations. A court pause, an appeal to the Supreme Court, raids affecting farm labor and a request for Congress to act leave decisions concentrated in institutions far from workers and communities absorbing their consequences.