The Biden-Harris administration was blocked from destroying razor-wire fencing Texas officials placed along the US-Mexico border by a federal appeals court Wednesday.
In a 2-1 decision, the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas “will likely succeed” in a lawsuit arguing that the federal government would be in violation of state trespassing laws if it were to cut down concertina wire placed in Eagle Pass — a hot spot for human and drug smuggling — in an effort to combat illegal border-crossings.
“Texas is seeking, not to ‘regulate’ Border Patrol, but only to safeguard its own property,” the 5th Circuit’s ruling stated.
The Biden-Harris administration had argued that Border Patrol agents need to be able to cut through the razor-wire fence to fulfill their duty of “patrolling the border to prevent the illegal entry of aliens into the United States.”
Texas claimed that federal authorities were cutting the wire fencing “for no apparent purpose other than to allow migrants easier entrance further inland” and that the barrier did not interfere with Border Patrol’s duties.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott celebrated the ruling and vowed to install more fencing.
“The federal court of appeals just ruled that Texas has the right to build the razor wire border wall that we have constructed to deny illegal entry into our state and that Biden was wrong to cut our razor wire,” Abbott wrote on X.
“We continue adding more razor wire border barrier,” he added.
Abbott has previously claimed that the 29 miles of fencing and floating buoy barriers along the Rio Grande have helped eliminate nearly all illegal crossings at Shelby Park, the epicenter of millions of illegal border crossings since President Biden took office.
The concertina-wire fence, the buoy barrier and other measures Abbott has deployed to counter illegal immigration have faced several legal challenges from the Biden-Harris administration, which argues that the federal government has the sole authority to enforce immigration laws.
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