The Biden administration has asked the US supreme court to allow border patrol agents to cut through razor-wire fencing that Texas placed along the US-Mexico border.
In an emergency appeal by the justice department, the solicitor general said that fencing installed by Texas’s Republican governor had actually prevented border agents from detaining migrants at the border, and said federal law allows the government to remove it.
Concertina wire fencing was installed on private property along the Rio Grande by the Texas national guard, as part of the state’s contentious efforts to target undocumented immigrants. Greg Abbott, the Republican Texas governor, has made harsh border policies a hallmark of his administration, and has also sent tens of thousands of migrants by bus to Democrat-run cities.
In October, Texas sued the federal government, alleging that border patrol agents had cut through the wire fencing. State officials placed the fencing on private land in areas typically used by migrants to cross into the US.
The federal government has argued that the agents have had to cut through or move fencing to enforce existing border laws or maintain safety. In December, the fifth US circuit court of appeals ruled in favor of Texas, saying agents could not cut or move the wire unless there was a medical emergency, NBC News reported, prompting the Biden administration to appeal to the supreme court.
In a court filing, the administration said the wire fencing had not deterred migrants from attempting to enter the US, and had instead prevented border agents from reaching people who had already crossed the US-Mexico border.
The administration said that accepting the fifth circuit decision “would leave the United States at the mercy of states that could seek to force the federal government to conform the implementation of federal immigration law to varying state-law regimes”.
Elizabeth Prelogar, the solicitor general, said in a court filing: “Like other law-enforcement officers, border patrol agents operating under difficult circumstances at the border must make context-dependent, sometimes split-second decisions about how to enforce federal immigration laws while maintaining public safety.”
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She added: “But 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.”
Abbott, like much of the Republican party, has made immigration a key political issue. The Texas governor has authorized installing floating barriers in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass and allowed troopers to arrest and jail thousands of migrants on trespassing charges.
