The Supreme Court is allowing Border Patrol agents to cut the razor wire that Texas recently installed along the U.S.-Mexico border, while the Biden administration’s lawsuit against the Lone Star State continues.
In a 5-4 decision handed down Monday, the Court granted the Department of Homeland Security’s emergency request to cut the wire, which the agency claimed was endangering migrants and preventing Border Patrol agents from patrolling the border.
“Federal law unambiguously grants Border Patrol agents the authority, without a warrant, to access private land within 25 miles of the international border,” the appeal read.
Conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh dissented, while Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the liberals in the majority.
The Court vacated an injunction that was imposed last month by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which permitted Texas to keep its concertina-wire barriers.
The temporary decision comes after Texas attorney general Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration in October over the destruction of the state’s concertina wire, alleging federal agents assisted the illegal entry of thousands of immigrants. In response, the Biden administration has maintained that Border Patrol must apprehend illegal immigrants once they enter the U.S. and that the wire barrier prevents the agency from patrolling the border.
“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,” the petition states.
Texas governor Greg Abbott ordered the installation of concertina wire along the state’s border near the Rio Grande last summer, as part of Texas’s immigration countermeasure Operation Lone Star. In addition to the razor wire, the state placed floating buoy barriers in the Rio Grande, drawing a challenge from the Biden administration. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the buoys to be removed last month.