On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration to put a stop to Border Patrol agents destroying barriers created with state property. The state property is concertina wire, or razor wire, paid for and utilized as part of Governor Abbott’s Operation Lone Star initiative.
Razor wire has been installed on the banks of the Rio Grande River to slow the flow of illegal immigrants crossing the border. DHS has ordered Border Patrol agents to cut the wire in order to help the illegal immigrants to cross the border. In other words, the Biden administration is destroying state property to help illegal immigrants cross into Texas without using a legal port of entry.
The amount of money being spent by Texas taxpayers to try to secure its border with Mexico is not small potatoes. The total is in the billions now, approved by the State Legislature. The Texas Military Department has spent $11M to deploy 70,000 rolls of concertina wire in areas along the Texas-Mexico border, particularly Eagle Pass. The justification given by the Biden administration is that migrants are being seriously injured by the razor wire. That is the point, though. The razor wire is meant to be a deterrent. The Biden administration is not interested in deterring illegal immigration.
According to the lawsuit, filed in the Western District of Texas, Border Patrol agents “not only cut Texas’ concertina wire, but also attach ropes or cables from the back of pickup trucks to ease” migrants’ ability to get onto the U.S. side of the river.
Since Sept. 20, immigration agents have “seized and damaged” the state-deployed concertina wire “more than 20 times,” the lawsuit says. None of the wire was located on federal land and was instead on land owned by border cities or private landowners, the lawsuit claims.
“By cutting Texas’s concertina wire, the federal government has not only illegally destroyed property owned by the State of Texas; it has also disrupted the State’s border deterrence efforts, leaving gaps in Texas’s border barriers and damaging Texas’s ability to effectively deter illegal entry into Texas,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement.
The lawsuit names the heads of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Border Patrol as defendants. Paxton’s office is asking a federal judge to rule that immigration agents cutting the wire is illegal and award damages to the state.
DHS didn’t comment on the litigation but did release a statement.
“Generally speaking, Border Patrol agents have a responsibility under federal law to take those who have crossed onto U.S. soil without authorization into custody for processing, as well as to act when there are conditions that put our workforce or migrants at risk,” a spokesperson for the department said.
To be clear, Border Patrol agents are following orders coming down from Mayorkas and Biden. Imagine how frustrating it must be for them as they cut the razor wire that was put up to help do their jobs.
Immigration is a federal responsibility. Unfortunately, the president is not doing his job. The Biden border crisis is intentional. It isn’t just millions of people crossing the southern border since Biden took office and being allowed to remain in the United States while asylum claims are sorted out. There is a fentanyl crisis, thanks to Biden’s neglect of border security. There is a human trafficking crisis, thanks to Biden’s neglect. Where is the concern for human life, much less national security, from the Biden administration?
More than 200 people on the terror watch list have been apprehended at the southern border in 2023. It is an historic number of potentially dangerous people crossing into the United States. This doesn’t include the gotaways who run from Border Patrol and law enforcement at the border who disappear into the country. They are not vetted at all. It is easy to believe that it is just a matter of time before something truly horrible happens in the United States due to the open southern border.
Joe Biden has made the world a more dangerous place, including the United States. That is not election cycle hyperbole. Look around. Our country’s security is at risk. The Middle East is on fire. There is a war in Europe due to Putin’s invasion into Ukraine. Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan allowed the Taliban to fill the leadership vacuum. Iran is more emboldened than ever.
Biden pledged to bring the grown-ups back into control. He ran on being the candidate with decades of experience in elected office who knows how to get things done. Instead, he has been an utter failure and made us all less safe than we were when he came into office.
