Supreme Court allows Biden administration to cut Texas border wire

The Supreme Court on Monday granted the Biden administration’s request to vacate a lower court decision surrounding Texas’s placement of razor wire along the southern border, clearing the way for Border Patrol officials to remove physical blockades from the border.

The justices responded to a Jan. 2 request by the Justice Department to intervene in the dispute after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit intervened in December and stopped the federal government from cutting wire set up by Texas to deter immigrants from illegally crossing the border.

Members of the U.S. military install multiple tiers of concertina wire along the banks of the Rio Grande near the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge at the U.S.-Mexico border, Friday, Nov. 16, 2018, in Laredo, Texas. — Members of the U.S. military install multiple tiers of concertina wire along the banks of the Rio Grande near the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge at the U.S.-Mexico border on Nov. 16, 2018, in Laredo, Texas. (Eric Gay/AP)

Republican-appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh said they would have denied the application to vacate the injunction.

The decision on Monday isn’t the final word on the contentious dispute, which has hit a fever pitch in recent weeks as Texas and the federal government stand at odds over how to mitigate the immigration crisis that has seen record levels of illegal immigrants over the border since President Joe Biden took office.

State Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX) argued in a Jan. 9 filing that the Supreme Court’s intervention was unnecessary at the moment because the 5th Circuit had already expedited oral arguments over the dispute for early next month.

The state argues that the federal government does not have the right to destroy Texas’s property and claims “eyewitness observers” reported Border Patrol agents “facilitat[ing] the surge of migrants” into Eagle Pass, Texas.

Border Patrol alleges the barriers block its agents from carrying out arrests on immigrants who enter the country illegally and claims the wire only obstructs efforts to administer aid in emergency situations, saying that the wire has also contributed to injuries among immigrants.

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The dispute surrounds miles of concertina wire and shipping containers that were spread across Texas’s border with Mexico in an effort to deter thousands of illegal border crossings. Texas has spent $9 billion on its border security program, which is called “Operation Lone Star.” Up to 5,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the border near Eagle Pass each day in recent weeks, causing strain on the 28,000-person town’s medical facilities.

On Dec. 5, the 5th Circuit halted a lower court order that gave Border Patrol agents legal cover to continue cutting the wire fences that Texas installed along the border. The judges there included an exception that allowed agents to cut the barrier in the event of a medical emergency.