Supreme Court says US border agents can remove Texas razor wire

The Supreme Court on Monday sided with the Biden administration against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), handing down a 5-4 decision granting U.S. Border Patrol agents permission to remove or cut Texas concertina wire to access the U.S.-Mexico border. 

The ruling, which vacates an injunction from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, tackles just one issue in Abbott's increasingly aggressive effort to militarize the border, but it also "effectively upholds longstanding court rulings that the Constitution gives the federal government sole responsibility for border security," The Texas Tribune reported. 

Abbott's Operation Lone Star, which has "spent or allocated more than $11 billion since 2021 to little effect," The Wall Street Journal reported, sent the Texas National Guard and state troopers to police the border. Much of the operation has focused on Eagle Pass. Texas placed $11 million of concertina wire along the Rio Grande there and anchored a controversial 1,000-foot floating barrier in the middle of the river.

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"Federal officials say the sharp barriers have maimed and bloodied migrants at several locations and pose a hazard to U.S. agents," The Washington Post noted. A Texas state trooper warned last summer that he had seen a miscarrying pregnant woman and a child snared in the "inhumane" razor wire.

Texas sued the Department of Homeland Security in October after Border Patrol agents cut the concertina wire to help injured migrants who had reached U.S. territory. Texas argued that the feds were illegally destroying state property. A federal judge disagreed, but a 5th Circuit panel stayed that ruling. The Supreme Court lifted that stay Monday.

"This case is ongoing, and Gov. Abbott will continue fighting to defend Texas' property and its constitutional authority to secure the border," Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris said.

"Enforcement of immigration law is a federal responsibility," DHS spokesperson Luis Miranda said. "Rather than helping to reduce irregular migration, the State of Texas has only made it harder for frontline personnel to do their jobs and to apply consequences under the law."

The case will now be argued in lower courts. In other pending cases, a 5th Circuit panel sided with the Biden administration and ordered Texas to remove the floating barrier; Texas appealed. And the federal government sued Texas earlier in January to gain access to Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, a 47-acre riverside park with a boat ramp that Texas seized from the city on Jan. 10. A mother and her two children drowned crossing toward the park on Jan. 12.