The Supreme Court on Monday, by a 5-4 vote, granted an emergency appeal from the Biden administration that will allow it to cut the razor wire Texas has installed at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The lawsuit over the concertina wire continues.
Texas Attorney General released a statement on the high court’s order, calling Biden’s actions illegal and vowing to keep fighting.
“The Supreme Court’s temporary order allows Biden to continue his illegal effort to aid the foreign invasion of America,” Paxton wrote in a news release. “The destruction of Texas’s border barriers will not help enforce the law or keep American citizens safe. This fight is not over, and I look forward to defending our state’s sovereignty.”
The concertina wire along roughly 30 miles of the Rio Grande near the border city of Eagle Pass is part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's broader fight with the administration over immigration enforcement.
A federal appeals court last month forced federal agents to stop cutting the concertina wire. Large numbers of migrants have crossed at Eagle Pass in recent months.
In court papers, the administration said the wire impedes Border Patrol agents from reaching migrants as they cross the river and that, in any case, federal immigration law trumps Texas’ own efforts to stem the flow of migrants into the country.
Paxton sued the Biden administration in October 2023 when it was discovered that federal agents were cutting the wire.
Paxton said his office will argue the case in front of the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 7.
Texas also has installed razor wire around El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley, where migrants have also crossed in high numbers. But the barrier has drawn the sharpest criticism in Eagle Pass, where some state troopers have raised concerns over the multiple injuries caused by razor wire.