A federal judge’s decision on October 30th has temporarily thwarted the Biden administration’s efforts to dismantle the coiled razor wire installed by Texas officials along the Mexican border. These barriers, originally positioned by the National Guard at the direction of Governor Abbott, were designed to combat instances of unauthorized border crossings.
After Texas installed a floating barrier in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass in September, there was an ongoing exchange of views between Texas officials and the White House. Conservative commentators and voters generally considered these barriers essential, while their liberal counterparts regarded them as lacking compassion.
Shortly after the floating barrier was put in place, a different federal judge ordered its removal. In reaction to this, Governor Abbott swiftly began installing razor wire at various sites. It seemed that, under what looked like guidance from the White House, the Department of Homeland Security officials started dealing with blockades made out of razor wires.
Observers witnessed agents cutting and, in some instances, completely removing the barriers. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the federal government, contending that the Biden administration had unlawfully granted DHS agents the power to participate in the removal of property belonging to the State of Texas.
Judge Alia Moses from the Western District of Texas ruled in favor of Attorney General Paxton, instructing the Department of Homeland Security to halt what she described as the dismantling, deterioration, and modification of the razor wire structures alongside the Rio Grande in the state. Paxton emphasized in his plea for an injunction that the DHS’s initial use of bolt cutters had evolved into the deployment of heavy-duty forklifts, leading to the complete dismantling of the border fence in Texas.
The Attorney General referenced a specific case in which he mentioned that officers forcefully removed the fence from the desert soil and lifted it while allowing significantly more than 300 undocumented immigrants to pass beneath it and enter the state.
