WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Texas on Friday temporarily halted the Trump administration’s plans to construct a border wall and related infrastructure through the state’s Big Bend region, handing opponents of President Donald Trump’s signature campaign promise a significant legal victory.

Property owners, local businesses and environmental groups have joined forces against the proposed construction. The projects form part of a $46 billion initiative to reinforce the southern border with 30-foot steel barriers, vehicle restrictions, access roads and surveillance equipment.

In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone wrote that the plaintiffs were “likely to succeed on the merits of at least one of the claims in suit,” faced a substantial risk of irreparable harm without an injunction, and that both the equities and the public interest favored their position.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection defended the planned work in a statement issued Friday.

“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 agency said. “We are working with the Department of Justice on next steps.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately answer a request for comment.

Cardone’s order covers Big Bend National Park, a focal point of the fight over the border wall and a site where construction was briefly suspended after intense opposition.

Critics say the roughly 500-mile Big Bend region is so isolated and rugged that its terrain already discourages illegal immigration. They also contend that the administration broke the law by issuing broad waivers that allowed border construction to bypass numerous environmental and other regulatory requirements.

The lawsuit was filed by an environmental organization, supporters of a historic church in Ruidosa and a river guide. They argued that the Department of Homeland Security improperly sidestepped safeguards intended to protect the area’s environment, cultural heritage and archaeological resources.

Laiken Jordahl of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups behind the case, described the decision as a “total victory.”

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“The bulldozers are going to be sent packing until she rules on the merits,” Jordahl said. “This is such a historic day for Big Bend and for Texas and the Constitution.”

The ruling came only weeks after the administration installed the first border wall panels in the Big Bend sector in mid-September.

Plans for the sector have drawn opposition from both Republicans and Democrats.

The strongest criticism has focused on CBP’s proposal to build inside Big Bend National Park, known for its dramatic scenery, limestone cliffs and exceptionally clear night skies.

The sight of bulldozers clearing land in the park in August triggered a broad backlash, prompting lawmakers from both parties to demand a halt. CBP later suspended the work, but that pause expired earlier this week. The administration says it is reconsidering its plans for the park, though it has not announced a final course of action.

Park advocates welcomed Friday’s decision while urging the administration to repair the damage already caused at Big Bend National Park and pursue alternatives to the proposed construction.

The injunction also applies to territory upriver and downriver from the national park, where CBP has proposed multiple border projects that would largely cross privately owned property.

The government has been seeking permission from landowners to conduct surveys and begin construction. In a recent court filing, however, officials said they were ready to send some unresolved cases to the Justice Department after failing to obtain consent.

Newly released bodycam footage captures the moment Luigi Mangione was questioned inside a Pennsylvania McDonald’s and later strip-searched following the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan.

In one clip, officers ask Mangione to pull down the face mask he was using to conceal his identity.

“That’s 100 percent him,” one officer says excitedly after stepping outside to speak out of Mangione’s earshot.

“I told you, man,” another officer replies off camera.

In another scene, an officer searches Mangione’s belongings and breaks into a broad smile after finding a gun cartridge, apparently reinforcing the belief that they had located their suspect.

The collection of videos documents Mangione’s arrest on December 9, 2024, in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after Thompson, a 50-year-old Minnesota executive, was shot as he walked toward a midtown Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference.

A Manhattan judge unsealed the recordings on Friday after CNN petitioned the court for their release.

Portions of the footage were played at a December court hearing, where Mangione’s lawyers unsuccessfully argued that key evidence—including his initial statements to police and items taken during his arrest—should be excluded.

Mangione pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges in August and could receive a life sentence when he is sentenced in December.

He is also facing murder charges in New York state court, although those proceedings have been postponed indefinitely while his lawyers seek to have the case dismissed.

The footage released Friday opens with officers arriving at the McDonald’s in central Pennsylvania, nearly 300 miles from Manhattan.

They find Mangione, an Ivy League-educated heir to a wealthy Maryland family, sitting at a table in a ski hat, surgical mask and winter coat. The officers say they are responding to a report of a suspicious person before asking for his name and identification.

“You’re a little nervous right now. Why are you nervous?” one officer asks.

Officers instruct him to place his hands on his head and question him about whether he has recently been in New York. They also challenge him over a fake New Jersey driver’s license he produced in the name of Mark Rosario.

“You’re under official police investigation right now,” one officer warns. “You give a false name to us again, you’re gonna be arrested for false ID.”

After Mangione eventually admitted his real identity, officers asked him why he had lied.

‘I clearly shouldn’t have,’ he responded as he was asked to write his real name and spell it aloud.

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Other videos show officers patting Mangione down, reading him his rights, placing him in cuffs and taking him to the police station.

As an officer searched him more thoroughly at the station, another officer went through his backpack.

The officer found the 9mm handgun authorities would later confirm was used in the killing, as well as a silencer and another ammo magazine. 

They also recovered the journal that prosecutors would later say revealed Mangione’s intent to ‘whack’ a health insurance executive, as well as his other handwritten notes.

‘He has a checklist for today,’ another officer said, ticking off the seized items to someone on the phone. ‘Tomorrow he’s supposed to do an intel check-in and get a survival kit.’

In August, the 28-year-old admitted why he killed the healthcare CEO. 

The killer claimed ‘severe’ back pain drove him to pose as an investor with over $50 billion and shoot the CEO dead. 

As he spoke in Manhattan Federal Court, Mangione laid bare his plan to target Thompson.

He told the court: ‘After years of enduring severe pain from a broken back, navigating the obstacles of the health insurance system and witnessing similar experiences of countless others, I learned that UnitedHealthcare would be holding its annual investor conference in New York City on December 4, 2024, although the specific location was not publicly disclosed.

‘I then searched the event online. I observed that the annual conference of America’s largest health care organization and the stated mission to make health – excuse me – with the stated mission to make the health system work better for everyone, would be attended by company executives, the board of directors, and hundreds of investors, not doctors, nurses, and patients.’

Mangione went on to reveal how he got Thompson’s location and acquired the murder weapon.

He said: ‘In November of 2024, I traveled from outside of New York State to Manhattan. I then emailed UnitedHealthcare leadership posing as an investor at a firm managing over $50 billion in assets and requesting information about the conference.

‘Unlike my previous interactions with insurers, I received an immediate response within an hour. Before traveling to New York, I used a 3D printer to make part of a gun, and I equipped the gun with the silencer and magazine. My travel to New York and email to UnitedHealthcare was with the intent to shoot Brian Thompson.’

Mangione concluded: ‘On the morning of December 4, 2024, I shot Mr Thompson in Manhattan and he died. When I did so, I understood that my actions would place him in fear of death or serious bodily injury. I knew what I was doing was illegal.’

The federal stalking charges he admitted to carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

His sentencing hearing has been scheduled for December 18.

The Daily Mail reached out to Mangione’s attorney for comment.  

Disgraced pastor John-Paul Miller has abandoned his embattled strip-mall church amid angry protests—only to be turned away from a makeshift replacement venue at a fried chicken restaurant.

Miller once preached to thousands at a megachurch. Now, he leads Mercy Church in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where no more than 50 people attend services inside a cheaply refurbished former nail salon in a run-down shopping strip.

Persistent demonstrations outside the property have since driven Miller to relocate to a nearby fast-food restaurant in an effort to hold services away from the protesters.

The 47-year-old pastor has faced mounting controversy since his wife, Mica, 30, was found dead on April 27, 2024—just days after filing for divorce.

Much of Miller’s congregation disappeared after he was accused of driving his wife to suicide and abusing her during their marriage. Miller denied the allegations and has not been charged in connection with her death.

The allegations did, however, precede federal charges accusing Miller of cyberstalking his wife. He has pleaded not guilty.

Protests at his new church intensified following the recent release of the Netflix documentary Death of the Pastor’s Wife.

Despite stringent security measures, including armed guards, Miller was nowhere to be found at Mercy Church on Sunday, September 27.

Protest organizers waited outside for hours before receiving a tip that Miller and dozens of church members had moved to a chicken restaurant five miles away in Surfside Beach.

The protesters soon moved to a traffic island between US 17 and a side street opposite Southern Chicken, where they resumed their heckling. Miller, his latest wife Suzie Skinner, 51, and the other church members were then expelled from the restaurant.

Southern Chicken confirmed that Miller and his congregation had been asked to leave, although the restaurant did not say whether the protests prompted the decision.

‘We did not support him. We had him escorted out,’ worker Chantell Dowell wrote online. She declined to provide further details when contacted by the Daily Mail.

Customers with reservations reportedly called the restaurant that day to ask whether Miller was present, saying they would make alternative plans if he was there.

Miller also called police about the protesters at the chicken restaurant, claiming they had followed him from the church and were stalking and harassing him.

Sam Rickman, one of the protest leaders and a close friend of Mica who belonged to Miller’s former Solid Rock Church until her death, mocked the disgraced pastor.

‘If you have nothing to hide, why are you hiding?’ he told the Daily Mail.

‘He probably thinks that maybe this Sunday they’ll be done, maybe they finally got it out of their system. But bro, we’re planning on being there until you go to prison.’

‘We have a friend who’s gone, and we have a lot of questions that haven’t been answered yet,’ he added.

Mica was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Lumbee River State Park in North Carolina, after calling 911 to tell her family where to find her.

Miller is increasingly becoming a pariah in Myrtle Beach and surrounding towns since the charges and documentary, with many businesses refusing to serve him.

He and Suzie were last week kicked out of Travinia Italian Kitchen in Myrtle Beach after customers and staff complained that the sight of the pair offended them.

General manager Ashley Thomas told the Daily Mail that Miller dared staff to call police on him and only left after Suzie dragged him out.

A scathing one-star review appeared on Travinia’s TripAdvisor page from a ‘John M’ later that evening that staff believe was left by Miller.

Thomas explained that after the documentary was released multiple tables would get up and leave when he arrived.

‘They would say things like, “I can’t believe you’re letting him eat here,” or “I’m not sitting here having dinner and staring at that guy,”‘ Thomas said.

‘Nobody wants to wait on him, and I’m not gonna force anyone to. So we just decided it would just probably be for the best that he does not come in here.’

Miller and Suzie were spotted at a Myrtle Beach Pelicans minor league baseball game on September 2, dressed casually and trying to blend in.

But when they tried to enjoy a post-game drink at nearby Uncle Tito’s bar in Murrells Inlet – about 10 miles from Miller’s home – they were jeered by other patrons.

One local said ‘everyone in the bar started yelling… and (the Millers) put their heads down and got the hell outta there real quick.’

Suzie is accused of having a long-running affair with Miller before Mica’s death. Her own late husband drowned in a swimming pool in 2021 – allegedly after discovering her betrayal.

Mercy Church is Miller’s attempt at a rebrand after the fallout from Mica’s death doomed its previous incarnation, Solid Rock Church, which had hundreds of followers.

Miller’s humble new venue, measuring just 1,120sq ft and so narrow it could only fit rows of seven chairs, was acquired for $155,000 in cash.

Miller is accused of a shocking alleged campaign of harassment against Mica in the leadup to her death.

He faces up to five years in prison for federal cyberstalking charges and two years for making false statements to investigators, plus a fine of up to $250,000.

He pleaded not guilty and will go on trial in January.

Mica filed for divorce from Miller in October 2023, before they reconciled in February 2024, then again on April 15, 2024, just before her death.

Miller is also fighting separate civil claims, accused in a lawsuit last July of raping a 15-year-old girl in 1998 while working at his father’s church in Myrtle Beach when he was 19.

Days later, a second woman, known as ‘Jane Doe #2’, sued him and his father for sexual abuse between 1999 and 2001 starting when she was 14.

Miller has denied both claims.