A divided Supreme Court approved a measure allowing federal border agents to remove razor wire installed by Texas along its U.S.-Mexico border, the latest salvo in an ongoing legal battle between President Biden and Gov. Greg Abbott on border security.
The justices voted 5-4 on Monday to overturn a December court order that prevented Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from removing barriers installed in Texas, allowing removals to move forward along a 30-mile stretch near from Eagle Pass.
Their vote split largely along partisan lines, with Justices Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Thomas voting to deny the vacation. However, conservative Justice Coney Barrett, along with Justice Roberts, voted in favor of the motion.
Biden and Abbott have been throwing lawsuits back and forth for months over the cable installed along the tense stretch of Eagle Pass, which has become the epicenter of the immigration crisis in Texas.
Abbott, who blames the president for failing to take aggressive steps to secure the southern border, has adopted aggressive border security measures, such as using state troops to seize Eagle Pass land along the Rio Grande and installing barriers such as razor wire. .
The Department of Justice (DOJ) sued to lift the December court order on Jan. 2, arguing that CBP had “warrantless” authority to access all land within 25 miles of the border and that the cable was preventing the agency from fulfilling its duties.
Texas National Guard soldiers installing razor wire on the border near Eagle Pass on January 10, 2024. Photo by John Moore/Getty Images
“Like other law enforcement officers, Border Patrol agents operating in difficult circumstances at the border must make context-dependent decisions, sometimes in split seconds, about how to enforce federal immigration laws while maintaining public safety,” the Justice Department said in its lawsuit.
“The court order prohibits agents from crossing or moving physical obstacles erected by the State that prevent access to the same border they are in charge of patrolling and to the people they must detain and inspect.”
A newly installed Texas National Guard patrol station sits behind new barbed wire and concertina wire in Shelby Park earlier this month. REUTERS Migrants seeking asylum in the United States try to cross a barbed wire fence deployed to prevent the crossing of migrants into the United States while a member of the Texas National Guard stands guard on the banks of the Rio Grande. REUTERS
The December injunction was granted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in response to a lawsuit filed by Texas in October that sought to block CBP from removing the cable.
Governor Abbott did not respond to requests for comment at the time of this publication.
“Texas was finally beginning to regain control of its border with Mexico when it took matters into its own hands. The Biden Administration will do everything possible to destroy America’s sovereignty,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said in a post on X.
The barbed wire dispute is just the latest to arise between Biden and Abbott.
In early January, the same day the lawsuit was filed to lift the December injunction, the Justice Department sued Texas over a new law that allows state officials to arrest people who have entered the country illegally.
The law, SB4, makes illegal entry into the United States a state crime and allows state officials to pursue deportation. It was signed in December and will come into force in March.
Seen from an aerial view, a U.S. Border Patrol agent monitors as migrants walk into the United States after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico on September 30, 2023. Getty Images Discarded clothing piles up near barbed wire on the banks of the Rio Grande. at Shelby Park on January 12. Getty Images
“Texas cannot manage its own immigration system,” the Justice Department said in its filing, arguing that it would hamper immigration processes and international relations with the federal government.
In response to that demand, Governor Abbott said “I like my opportunities” in a x publication.
“Texas is the only government in the United States that tries to stop illegal immigration,” he added.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn