WASHINGTON D.C., DC — A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed Border Patrol agents to cut razor wire that Texas installed on the U.S.-Mexico border, while a lawsuit over the wire continues.
The justices, by a 5-4 vote, granted an emergency appeal from the Biden administration, which has been in an escalating standoff at the border with Texas and had objected to an appellate ruling in favor of the state. It forced federal agents to stop cutting the concertina wire that the state has installed along roughly 30 miles of the Rio Grande near the border city of Eagle Pass. Large numbers of migrants have crossed there in recent months.
In court papers, the administration said the wire impedes Border Patrol agents from reaching migrants as they cross the river and that, in any case, federal immigration law trumps Texas' own efforts to stem the flow of migrants into the country.
Texas officials have argued that federal agents cut the wire to help groups crossing illegally through the river before taking them in for processing.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor sided with the administration. Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas voted with Texas.
We reached out to Gov. Greg Abbott's office for a response and spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris sent us the following statement.
“The Biden Administration has repeatedly cut wire that Texas installed to stop illegal crossings, opening the floodgates to illegal immigrants. The absence of razor wire and other deterrence strategies encourages migrants to make unsafe and illegal crossings between ports of entry, while making the job of Texas National Guard soldiers and DPS troopers more dangerous and difficult. This case is ongoing, and Governor Abbott will continue fighting to defend Texas' property and its constitutional authority to secure the border.”
“The Supreme Court’s temporary order allows Biden to continue his illegal effort to aid the foreign invasion of America,” Texas Attorney General Paxton said in a statement. “The destruction of Texas’s border barriers will not help enforce the law or keep American citizens safe. This fight is not over, and I look forward to defending our state’s sovereignty.”
The court case pitting Republican-led Texas against Democratic President Joe Biden's administration is part of a broader fight over immigration enforcement.
Texas also fenced off a park along the border and began turning away Border Patrol agents.
“We are not allowing Border Patrol on that property anymore,” Abbott said earlier this month, drawing applause from supporters," Republican Gov. Greg Abbott explained why at a campaign stop near Houston. He relayed frustration over migrants illegally entering the U.S. through the border city of Eagle Pass and federal agents loading them onto buses.
“We said, ‘We’ve had it. We’re not going to let this happen anymore,’” Abbott said.
Later that night, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said three migrants, including two children, drowned near the park after Texas officials “physically barred” Border Patrol agents from entering. Mexican authorities pulled the bodies, each of them wearing jackets, from the water on the other side of the Rio Grande.
The Texas Military Department released a statement disputing the U.S. government's accounts, calling it “wholly inaccurate” that state personnel prevented Border Patrol from saving drowning migrants.
“At the time that Border Patrol requested access, the drownings had occurred, Mexican authorities were recovering the bodies, and Border Patrol expressed these facts to the TMD personnel on site,” the department said.
The Biden administration stuck to its initial account, saying in a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that Texas denied Border Patrol agents access before they knew the migrants died. In a direct contradiction of Texas' version of events, Homeland Security said agents at the time knew only that migrants were attempting to cross the river.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also authorized installing floating barriers in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass and allowed troopers to arrest and jail thousands of migrants on trespassing charges.