Biden takes his fight against Texas to the Supreme Court. The Democratic president's administration has filed an emergency request with the court to allow border patrol agents to cut the barbed wire that the Texas government has installed 30 miles (48 kilometers) along the border with Mexico. This Tuesday's request seeks for the judges to suspend an appeal that a court admitted in December in favor of the local authorities. The parties are engaged in another separate lawsuit over the buoys installed on the Rio Grande.
At the heart of this dispute is the question of who has the authority to step up surveillance of an area that is seeing record levels of illegal immigration, with more than 2.5 million encounters. The Biden administration argues that the Border Patrol, a force dependent on the federal executive branch, is capable of breaching the barrier erected by the National Guard starting in late 2022. The agents allege that the accordion has hindered some surgeries performed — and even the treatment of medical emergencies — and that makes it difficult to process immigrants arriving on American soil.
Greg Abbott's administration, however, said in October that by cutting the wire, Washington had “destroyed Texas property and undermined local efforts to make the border more secure.” Local authorities believe that the loopholes created by the Border Patrol make it easier for migrants to enter the United States. CNN has reported on several cases in which the barrier was destroyed by state police themselves. This creates a passage through which the police invite migrants to cross. If they do, they will be arrested for trespassing.
The barbed wire has led to a legal tug of war. Texas sued the federal government in October over the destruction of the nearly 30-mile-long barrier, which was built on both public and private land. This is part of the Lone Star promotion launched by Abbott in 2021, which invested more than $11 million in 70,000 accordion rolls.
A month later, in November, a federal judge ruled in favor of the Border Patrol, finding that Texas authorities had not proven with sufficient evidence that the uniformed officers had violated the law. But official Alia Moses also questioned federal agents' methods of allowing entry through these holes rather than taking immigrants to customs for processing.
The Abbott government then appealed the decision. In early December, the Louisiana-based Fifth Federal Circuit of Appeals halted Moses' decision and gave Washington a deadline to respond to the lawsuit. Days later, he concluded that the judge's decision was wrong and that Customs and Customs Enforcement (CBP) employees should not cut the wire. This Tuesday, the government is taking the case to the Supreme Court.
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This fight is one of several fronts that the Biden administration is waging against Gov. Greg Abbott, one of the most radical in the fight against illegal immigration. In late 2023, the Justice Department threatened to file a new lawsuit against the state if it implemented the controversial SB4. This law, passed by Congress and recently signed by the governor, criminalizes migrants by allowing local police to arrest anyone suspected of being undocumented and bring them before a state judge to begin deportation proceedings. Washington asserts that the rule is unconstitutional and is poised to open a new legal controversy.
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