The United States Supreme Court has sided with the Biden administration as it battles with Texas over the removal of razor wire along the southern border.
Customs and Border Patrol will be permitted to remove the wire – which was placed to deter illegal immigrants from attempting to cross into Texas – as litigation over the issue continues. The wire was installed by Texas authorities along 29 miles of the Rio Grande.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh cast the dissenting votes.
The Biden administration denies that the razor wire is effective in deterring illegal crossings.
“Governor Abbott’s razor wire does not prevent — it does not prevent non-citizens from unlawfully crossing. That’s not what it does,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a press briefing on Jan. 22. “If anything, it puts at risk — it puts the lives of the Border Patrol at risk. It puts them in danger. That’s what the razor wire does.”
She added that the wire “actually makes it more difficult for Border Patrol to apprehend of those who — who do cross.”
Texas sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in October for the destruction of the state’s border barrier, citing “the federal government’s practice of cutting and destroying Texas’s concertina wire that was strategically positioned for the purpose of securing the state’s border with Mexico and stemming the flow of illegal migration.”
“Texas has the sovereign right to construct border barriers to prevent the entry of illegal aliens,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in an Oct. 25 statement. “Americans across the country were horrified to watch Biden’s open-border policy in action: agents were physically cutting wires and assisting the aliens’ entry into our state. This is illegal. It puts our country and our citizens at risk.”
“The courts must put a stop to it, or Biden’s free-for-all will make this crushing immigration crisis even worse,” he added.
U.S. District Judge Alia Moses of Del Rio denied Texas’ request to block the federal government from removing. She wrote that the state government hadn’t provided enough evidence that the federal agents were violating the law. However, she also implied the issue was created by the federal government through “culpable and duplicitous behavior.”
“Any rational observer could not help but wonder why the Defendants do not just allow migrants to access the country at a port of entry,” Moses wrote, per The Texas Tribune. “If agents are going to allow migrants to enter the country, and indeed facilitate their doing so, why make them undertake the dangerous task of crossing the river? Would it not be easier, and safer, to receive them at a port of entry?”
In December, a panel of three judges from the Firth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the previous decision and blocked the federal government from removing the razor wire. DHS appealed to the Supreme Court in January.
Republican members of Congress have denounced the high court’s decision to allow the razor wire to be removed during the ongoing legal dispute.
“My thoughts are that the feds are staging a civil war, and Texas should stand their ground,” wrote Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins on X.
“You know who could fix this - literally overrule the Supreme Court and the White House on the Texas v Biden dispute? Congress,” wrote Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie in another post. “In fact it was explained to a group of us by Justice Scalia during breakfast at the Capitol Hill Club. He told us to quit funding things we don’t like.”
Paxton said the court’s temporary order “allows Biden to continue his illegal effort to aid the foreign invasion of America.”
“The destruction of Texas’s border barriers will not help enforce the law or keep American citizens safe,” he added in a message on X. “This fight is not over, and I look forward to defending our state’s sovereignty.”
