Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) suggested Texas officials should defy a divided Supreme Court’s decision to allow Border Patrol agents to cut razor wire installed by the state on the U.S.-Mexico border.

In defense of the razor wire fence, which was installed to deter immigrants from entering the country, Roy said Texas has a “duty under the Constitution” to defend its border if the federal government fails to do so.

“They have a duty under the Constitution … and every other norm of leadership of any sovereign state, to protect your citizens, period, full stop,” Roy told Fox News on Tuesday. “There is no exception to that. And if the Supreme Court wants to ignore that truth, which a slim majority did, Texas still had the duty, Texas leaders still have the duty, to defend their people.

“It’s like, if someone’s breaking into your house, and the court says, ‘Oh, sorry, you can’t defend yourself,’ what do you tell the court?” Roy added. “You tell the court to go to hell, you defend yourself, and then figure it out later.”

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday to grant the Biden administration’s request to vacate a federal appeals court’s injunction. The conservative majority Supreme Court struck down a December 2023 ruling by the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit that blocked border agents from removing concertina wire Texas installed along the Rio Grande.

Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with the court’s three liberals in supporting Biden’s request, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts.

“Texans favor security,” Roy wrote on X. “Whether it’s for a SCOTUS Justice being protested – OR the people of Texas being invaded & put in danger. Guess that’s just a one-sided view.”

Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) has ramped up border enforcement over the past two years by enclosing Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, with concertina wire. The 47-acre park straddles the Rio Grande and is patrolled by state troopers to deter the record-high numbers of illegal immigrants the state is facing. Texas troopers have treated hundreds of people left injured by the razor wire and seen multiple drownings and deaths from dehydration.

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In September 2023, Border Patrol agents started to cut through the wire to detain and assist injured immigrants. Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the federal government for breaching the wire in October.

“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 deterrence efforts, leaving gaps in Texas’s border barriers and damaging Texas’s ability to effectively deter illegal entry into Texas,” the two Republicans said in a press release.