Gov. Abbott has been taking dramatic action to defend Texas from illegal immigration. Among other policies, such as shipping illegals to blue cities, he has constructed a bevy of border barriers between Texas and Mexico, including a floating border barrier in the Rio Grande and a physical wall on the land border.
The Biden Administration, in response, didn’t thank Gov. Abbott for doing its job and defending the border. Instead, it went ballistic. The Biden DOJ started a lawfare campaign demanding Gov. Abbott take down the floating border barrier and federal agents have even been cutting the barbed wire to let illegal immigrants in.
In reaction to the Biden Administration’s attempt to dismantle the border barrier, Texas AG Ken Paxton sued. Explaining the scope of the border crisis in the lawsuit, he wrote, “The crisis at the southern border is well known. The Biden Administration’s abdication of its duty to secure the border has allowed millions of aliens to illegally cross into Texas in record numbers. According to data maintained by the federal government, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) encountered approximately 458,000 aliens at the border in FY2020.
Further emphasizing the tidal wave of humanity rolling across the border, he said, “That number swelled to over 1.7 million encounters in FY2021 and nearly 2.4 million in FY2022. And the number of “gotaways”—aliens who are detected as making an illegal entry but neither found nor apprehended—increased by 303 percent between FY2019 and FY2022, reaching more than 600,000 in FY2022.”
Continuing, AG Paxton noted that the Biden regime’s CBP agents are cutting the wire put up as part of Operation Lone Star, saying, “On previous occasions, agents of CBP have cut Texas’s concertina wire barriers placed at strategic border crossing locations. But just as Eagle Pass was being overwhelmed by this alien surge in September and October of 2023, agents of CBP, without any justification, increased this federal practice of cutting, destroying, or otherwise damaging Texas’s concertina wire that had been strategically positioned for the purpose of securing the border and stemming the flow of illegal migration.”
Paxton continued, “Since September 20, 2023, federal agents have developed and implemented a policy, pattern, or practice of destroying Texas’s concertina wire to encourage and assist thousands of aliens to illegally cross the Rio Grande and enter Texas. Federal agents not only cut Texas’s concertina wire, but also attach ropes or cables from the back of pickup trucks to ease aliens’ ability to illegally climb up the riverbank into Texas. And they regularly cut new openings in the wire fence, sometimes immediately after Texas officers have placed new wire to plug up gaps in fencing barriers.”
The Biden regime responded to the lawsuit by escalating the border barrier destruction, as AG Paxton’s office emphasized in a press release, writing, “Within half an hour of the filing, the Biden Administration further escalated the barrier destruction, as agents were filmed using a forklift to smash the fencing against the ground repeatedly. On Saturday, Texas filed additional documentation about this incident, and the motion for a temporary restraining order was granted the next working day, Monday, October 30. The federal court has set the hearing on Texas’s motion for preliminary injunction seeking to prevent the agents’ cutting, destroying, damaging, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s concertina wire fence for November 7, 2023.”
Well, Texas just received a temporary reprieve from a federal judge. That judge was U.S. District Judge Alia Moses in Del Rio, Texas. Judge Moses barred the Biden Administration from cutting or removing Texas’ border wire until at least November 13 as she continues reviewing AG Paxton’s suit.
The only exception to the prohibition is for federal agents to destroy the border barrier to “take immediate action to obtain medical attention” on behalf of a migrant in distress or who suffered injury. “This Order therefore includes a narrow exception to permit the Defendants to move or cut the concertina wire to aid individuals in medical distress, as noted above,” Judge Moses noted.
AG Paxton, commenting on the ruling, said, “The federal government’s outrageous escalation in response to our lawsuit demonstrates Biden’s disturbing contempt for the State of Texas, for the citizens of the United States, and for our country’s entire foundation of the rule of law. By acting quickly and monitoring their actions closely, we were able to secure a restraining order, and I am confident we will continue to prevail.”
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