Biden brawl with Texas over razor wire on the border reaches Supreme Court

John Fritze, USA TODAY
Updated ·2 min read
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WASHINGTON – The Biden administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow it cut razor wire barriers Texas has erected along a 29-mile stretch of the Rio Grande, the latest legal brawl to emerge between Gov. Greg Abbott’s administration and the federal government over the border.

The emergency appeal Tuesday comes days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit sided with the state of Texas, barring the federal government from removing the concertina wire barriers except in cases of emergency, such as if a migrant is “drowning or suffering heat exhaustion.”

Just days earlier, Abbott signed a law allowing state law enforcement officers to arrest, detain and deport people suspected of illegally crossing the Texas-Mexico border. The 5th Circuit also recently ordered Texas to move a floating barrier the state had erected on the river.

The Department of Homeland Security told the Supreme Court that federal law gives border patrol agents the authority to access private land within 25 miles of the border and that state laws cannot be used to restrain those agents from carrying out their work.

September 25, 2023: Chelsea from Nicaragua looks on after crawling through a hole made in the razor wire to cross into Eagle Pass, Texas. Dozens of migrants arrived at the US-Mexico border on Sept. 22, 2023, hoping to be allowed into the United States, with US border forces reporting 1.8 million encounters with migrants in the last 12 months.
September 25, 2023: Chelsea from Nicaragua looks on after crawling through a hole made in the razor wire to cross into Eagle Pass, Texas. Dozens of migrants arrived at the US-Mexico border on Sept. 22, 2023, hoping to be allowed into the United States, with US border forces reporting 1.8 million encounters with migrants in the last 12 months.

The border has become a political debate in the 2024 election as well as a legal question for the courts amid a recent increase in apprehensions. Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have hammered President Joe Biden on the issue for months, and polling suggest the strategy is working with voters.

Biden officials are asking the Supreme Court to allow border patrol agents to temporarily remove the razor wire while the courts sort out the legal questions.

The appeals court order “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 administration told the Supreme Court in its filings.

A spokesperson for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden takes fight with Texas over razor wire to Supreme Court