Published October 31,2023
A federal judge in the Western District of Texas issued a Temporary Restraining Order against the Biden administration prohibiting the “disassembling, degrading, tampering with” border barriers put in place by the State of Texas. The move comes after multiple reports of Border Patrol agents cutting the concertina wire barriers put in place by order of the governor of Texas.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Texas Public Policy Foundation filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Border Patrol, and multiple Biden administration appointees to stop the federal government’s interference in the State of Texas’ efforts to stop illegal border crossings.
U.S. District Judge Alia Moses granted a Temporary Restraining Order (attached below) directing the federal government from “disassembling, degrading, tampering with, or
transforming” border barriers put in place by the State of Texas under Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star. The judge carved out a small exception where the federal government my “take immediate action to obtain medical attention” for a migrant in distress or who suffered injury.
“This Order therefore includes a narrow
exception to permit the Defendants to move or cut the concertina wire to aid individuals in medical
distress, as noted above,” the judge noted.
Judge Moses’ order states there is a “public interest” that “demands effective measures to prevent the illegal entry of aliens at the Mexican border.”
RELATED: Attorney General Ken Paxton Wins Crucial Emergency Order Against Biden Administration’s Continued Destruction of Texas’s Border Barrier
Published October 30,2023
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has secured an emergency restraining order after federal agents were documented destroying barrier fencing to facilitate aliens’ entry near the Texas-Mexico border. Texas filed the initial lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”), DHS Secretary Mayorkas, and other agencies on Tuesday, October 24, after numerous documented incidents of barrier destruction during a severe immigration surge in recent months. These instances often included using wire cutters to create gaps in fencing then waving aliens through and assisting their entry in other ways. At times, agents were observed attaching ropes to pickup trucks to enable aliens to scale the riverbank and enter the United States.
RELATED: Texas sues Biden administration seeking to stop federal agents from cutting razor wire on border
FILE – Birds rest on concertina wire along the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass,Texas, July 6, 2023. Texas sued the Biden administration Tuesday, Oct. 24, seeking to stop federal agents from cutting the state’s razor wire that has gashed or snagged migrants as they have attempted to enter the U.S. from Mexico at the Rio Grande. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Published October 24,2023
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Texas sued the Biden administration on Tuesday, seeking to stop federal agents from cutting the state’s razor wire that has gashed or snagged migrants as they have attempted to enter the U.S. from Mexico at the Rio Grande.
In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Del Rio, Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton accuses the Biden administration of “undermining” the state’s border security efforts.
“Texas has the sovereign right to construct border barriers to prevent the entry of illegal aliens,” Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, said in a news release Tuesday.
State authorities started rolling out miles (kilometers) of the concertina wire in May before the end of Title 42, a temporary emergency health authority used to turn migrants back during the pandemic. The sharp wire was deployed in areas of high traffic through the Rio Grande at the border near such locations as Brownsville and Eagle Pass, Texas.
Migrant and environmental advocates quickly raised concerns over the damaging effects of the razor wire, which were also raised internally by those charged with enforcing its use. A state trooper and medic described the use of their border tactics as “inhumane” in July when he sent an internal complaint documenting cases of lacerated and injured migrants.
The barrier is set up a few yards (meters) from the river or sometimes at the edge of it and would keep migrants in the water, sometimes for hours, waiting for U.S. Border Patrol tasked with processing them under immigration law. In some cases, federal agents have broken through the wire to gain access to entangled migrants or on the other side.
Texas alleges the practice of cutting through the wire increased recently when thousands of migrants waded through the river and into the area of Eagle Pass in late September.
