Members of the Texas National Guard stand guard at a wire fence deployed to prevent migrants from crossing into the United States at the U.S.-Mexico border, seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, October 22, 2023. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez Acquire Licensing Rights
Published October 25, 2023
Texas’ attorney general on Tuesday filed a lawsuit seeking to block U.S. federal agents along the Mexico border from cutting and destroying razor wire the Republican-led state had installed to prevent migrants from crossing the Rio Grande river.
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Del Rio, Texas, argued the Biden administration was not only illegally destroying property owned by Texas but undermining its efforts to stem the flow of illegal immigration.
“Texas has the sovereign right to construct border barriers to prevent the entry of illegal aliens,” Paxton said in a statement.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit but said that U.S. Border Patrol agents have a responsibility to “act when there are conditions that put our workforce or migrants at risk.”
The concertina wire fencing was installed by the Texas National Guard as part of Operation Lone Star, an initiative launched by Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott in 2021 aimed at deterring migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The installation sites included Eagle Pass, Texas, the focus of a recent increase in border crossings. The arrival of thousands of migrants prompted Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas to issue an emergency declaration in September.
Paxton’s lawsuit said that amid that uptick, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents increased a practice they had previously deployed of cutting, destroying or otherwise damaging wire that the state had strategically placed with landowners’ permission.
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SOURCE: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/texas-sues-block-biden-administration-cutting-wire-border-fencing-2023-10-24/
RELATED: Texas Sues Biden Admin For Cutting Border Wire Placed By State Officials
Published October 24, 2023
Texas sued the Biden administration Tuesday for the federal government’s practice of cutting wire placed along the border by state authorities.
Federal agents have implemented a policy of destroying Texas’ wire to “encourage and assist thousands of aliens to illegally cross the Rio Grande and enter Texas,” according to the lawsuit. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently instructed state authorities to place barbed wire along the border in response to an increase of illegal crossings.
“By cutting Texas’s concertina wire, the federal government has not only illegally destroyed property owned by the State of Texas; it has also disrupted the State’s border security efforts, leaving gaps in Texas’s border barriers and damaging Texas’s ability to effectively deter illegal entry into its territory,” the lawsuit alleges.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement Tuesday that the state has “the sovereign right to construct border barriers to prevent the entry of illegal aliens.”
“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,” Paxton said. “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.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller, U.S. Border Patrol, Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens and Acting Chief Border Patrol Agent Juan Bernal are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
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SOURCE: https://dailycaller.com/2023/10/24/texas-sues-biden-admin-cutting-border-wire-placed-state-officials/
RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Illegal Migrants Fist Bump Border Patrol Agent After He Cuts Through Border Wire
Published September 28, 2023
EAGLE PASS, Texas — Illegal migrants fist bumped and thanked Border Patrol agents for cutting through barbed wire that had been erected by Texas authorities to secure the border, the Daily Caller News Foundation observed Thursday in Eagle Pass, Texas.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently instructed Texas authorities to place more wire along the Rio Grande River to address the influx of illegal crossings. Border Patrol agents cut through the wire to take into custody a group of migrants that had crossed the Rio Grande and arrived at the U.S. side of the river.
The migrants who crossed illegally Thursday thanked Border Patrol and the U.S. after they were let in.
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SOURCE: https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/28/border-patrol-wire-illegal-migrant/
RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Migrants Are Ditching Biden DHS’ Legal Entry Phone App, Crossing Border Illegally Instead
Published September 28, 2023
EAGLE PASS, Texas — Migrants crossing the southern border illegally are trashing their documents that confirm their appointments for legal entry through the Biden administration’s CBP One program, according to migrants interviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation along the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas.
Migrants crossing the southern border illegally into the U.S. told the DCNF that the CBP One entry program isn’t working for them because of the wait times and problems in Mexico. The Biden administration began use of CBP One for migrants to enter the U.S. legally by booking appointments on a phone application amid a surge in illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It didn’t work,” one migrant from Venezuela told the DCNF.
A woman from Ecuador said the police in Mexico told her family that they didn’t qualify for CBP One appointments.
“They robbed us a lot. They put their hands on me. They were frisking me and taking all my money,” a woman from the group said.
Meanwhile, CBP One appointment documents that had been ripped up were scattered across the border in Eagle Pass.
“Yes, I have it here. Everyday, nothing showed up. Nothing would show up no matter how many times you’d apply,” one Venezuelan woman said, regarding the app.
In August alone, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processed 45,400 migrants using the app, according to the agency. The number of illegal migrants in Border Patrol custody nationwide surpassed 22,000 on Tuesday evening, according to internal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
