The Biden administration has petitioned the Supreme Court to let Border Patrol agents clear razor wire on the US-Mexico border that was installed by Texas in a bid to prevent migrants from crossing into the state.
In a Tuesday filing, the administration argued that it has the jurisdiction under federal law to remove concertina wire Texas officials laid down near the Rio Grande.
“Federal law unambiguously grants Border Patrol agents the authority, without a warrant, to access private land within 25 miles of the international border,” the Justice Department wrote in its appeal to the Supreme Court.
The DOJ further argued that the razor wire, installed along a 30-mile stretch of land near Eagle Pass, Texas, hinders federal agents from accessing parts of the border.
“Like other law-enforcement officers, Border Patrol agents operating under difficult circumstances at the border must make context-dependent, sometimes split-second decisions about how to enforce federal immigration laws while maintaining public safety,” the filing states.
“But the injunction prohibits agents from passing through or moving physical obstacles erected by the State that prevent access to the very border they are charged with patrolling and the individuals they are charged with apprehending and inspecting.”
Last October, Texas sued the federal government, seeking to prevent border agents from cutting the razor wire.
In December, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit temporarily blocked agents from cutting it. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Photo: John Moore/Getty Images |
Legal battle is part of escalating conflict between U.S. and Texas officials over immigration enforcement
The Biden administration asked the Supreme Court Tuesday to reinstate federal authority over the international boundary between Mexico and Texas, after state officials won a lower court order blocking the U.S. Border Patrol from removing concertina wire Texas officers installed to deter migrants from crossing a 29-mile stretch of the Rio Grande.
The move represents another volley in the increasing conflict between Texas and the federal government over border enforcement. State troopers and National Guardsmen deployed by the state laid miles of razor wire as part of the state’s Operation Lone Star border security effort. The operation has spent or allocated more than $11 billion since 2021, with limited efficacy, and has sought to challenge the federal government’s sole authority over international borders.
In court papers, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued that Congress had given the Border Patrol extensive power to enforce immigration law within 25 miles of the border, including the right to enter private property without a warrant. State governments, she wrote, have no power to displace federal authority the Constitution commits to Washington.
In New Orleans last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sided with Texas, which sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under state trespass laws and other grounds after Border Patrol agents cut through some of the barbed wire placed by state officials. Although the government generally is immune from lawsuits, the Fifth Circuit concluded that Congress had waived that immunity and said the Border Patrol couldn’t remove the wire while the litigation proceeds.
“The public interest supports clear protections for property rights from government intrusion and control,” Judge Kyle Duncan wrote for a Fifth Circuit panel.
Prelogar wrote that the Fifth Circuit turned the constitutional order on its head, placing state-law property interests above the federal government’s duty to police the international boundary. --->READ MORE HERE
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