Construction of the U.S. border wall near a Texas wildlife refuge will stay paused for now.
The Texas county that owns a canal near the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge filed a lawsuit after construction contractors entered its property without permission and dumped dirt into the canal.
But the federal government claims it owns the land and filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
Last week, a federal judge recommended work not start again until the litigation is resolved.
The Trump administration's efforts to push construction ahead on multiple border wall projects have drawn national attention and bipartisan criticism.
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A similar case involves Big Bend National Park, where work paused in August and local advocates mounted protests. There have been calls for an emergency restraining order to prevent construction from going forward.
Critics say there are already deep scars in parts of the desert, where native plants and animal habitats have been destroyed.
The Big Bend sector is the longest section of the president's southern border security project, at more than 500 miles, but according to Customs and Border Patrol data, it has the fewest illegal crossings, at around 1%.
Rodney Scott, the head of of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said that "CBP is pausing all construction activity in Big Bend National Park while I visit and conduct a personal, on-the-ground evaluation."
