Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told the Supreme Court in a court filing Tuesday that granting the Biden administration’s request to cut wire installed on the border by state authorities will “needlessly endanger public safety.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to freeze an order issued by the Fifth Circuit temporarily blocking the Border Patrol from removing the wire while it considers Texas’ appeal. Paxton responded Tuesday by saying cutting the fencing “to wave thousands of people into Texas has nothing to do with inspection, apprehension, or removal,” contrary to the department’s argument.
He pointed to findings at the district court level that “the number of border crossings into Texas at unauthorized places has exploded.” He also pointed to testimony revealing the cutting “was not precipitated by medical exigency,” such as Texas official Michael Banks’ account of federal “agents waving individuals through Texas’s destroyed fencing without any inspection.” It is the government, not Texas, who is “putting people in danger,” Paxton wrote.
Texas sued the Biden administration in October for its practice of cutting the wire, which Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott instructed local authorities to install in response to the increase in illegal crossings.
The filing notes the case is already on an “expedited schedule” at the appeals court. Oral arguments to consider the case in the Fifth Circuit will be held on Feb. 7.
In the meantime, the lower court’s decision, which found evidence that “amply demonstrated” the Biden administration’s failure to prevent illegal entry but did not prevent the federal government from removing the wire, is on hold.
The government claimed in an emergency application to the court on Jan. 2 that the wire limits agents’ access “to the very border they are charged with patrolling and the individuals they are charged with apprehending and inspecting.”
The Biden administration also opposed Texas’ installation of a buoy barrier along the border and filed a lawsuit on Jan. 3 challenging a state law that empowers local law enforcement to arrest migrants who cross illegally.
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