A federal judge rejected Texas’ request to bar Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection agents from cutting razor wire along the border between the Lone Star State and Mexico.
U.S. district judge Alia Moses on Wednesday denied the state’s motion to permanently block border officials from destroying the fencing barrier that Texas set up to prevent illegal migrants from crossing the border. In late October, the same judge granted Texas a temporary restraining order barring the Biden administration from cutting the concertina wire, particularly in Eagle Pass, Texas, which has seen thousands of illegal aliens pouring into the U.S. in recent months.
The short-term order allowed the fencing to remain intact, unless in case of medical emergencies. Many migrants attempting to enter the U.S. illegally have gotten snared in the wire, which has prompted pushback from environmental and migrant advocates.
Moses issued the latest order in favor of the federal government because there was insufficient evidence that CBP agents had violated the law by cutting the razor wire. However, she did leave Texas an opportunity to prove its case in the future and criticized how the Biden administration has handled the border over the last three years.
“The immigration system at the heart of it all, dysfunctional and flawed as it is, would work if properly implemented,” the George W. Bush appointee wrote. “Instead, the status quo is a harmful mixture of political rancor, ego, and economic and geopolitical realities that serves no one. So destructive is its nature that the nation cannot help but be transfixed by, but simultaneously unable to correct, the present condition.”
“What follows here is but another chapter in this unfolding tragedy. The law may be on the side of the Defendants and compel a resolution in their favor today, but it does not excuse their culpable and duplicitous conduct,” Moses said of the federal border-security agencies.
Attorney general Ken Paxton announced Thursday that he had already appealed the ruling. “I am disappointed that the federal government’s blatant and disturbing efforts to subvert law and order at our State’s border with Mexico will be allowed to continue,” Paxton said in a news release. “Biden’s doctrine of open borders at any cost threatens the safety of our citizens, and we will continue to fight it every step of the way.”
Governor Greg Abbott (R., Texas) also weighed in on the judge’s decision, saying he supports Paxton’s “immediate appeal … to ensure that Biden is swiftly held accountable.”
The razor-wire fence was created as part of Texas’s 2021 initiative, Operation Lone Star, which seeks to deter migrant crossings and divert the flow of illegal immigration toward state-recognized ports of entry. Abbott has faced criticism for recently installing the concertina wire, as well as buoy barriers that prevent migrants from crossing the Rio Grande. The governor is also challenging the Biden administration over the floating barriers after the Department of Justice sued Texas for refusing to remove them this summer.