Biden asks the Supreme Court to remove the barbed wire on the border with Mexico

Biden raises his battle against Texas to the Supreme Court. The Administration of the Democratic president has brought an emergency request to the Court so that Border Patrol agents can cut the barbed wire that the Texas Government has installed 48 kilometers along the border with Mexico. This Tuesday's motion seeks for the judges to suspend an appeal that a court granted in December in favor of local authorities. The parties maintain another separate lawsuit over the buoys installed on the Rio Grande.

At the center of this dispute is the question of who has the authority to strengthen surveillance of an area that has seen record numbers of illegal immigration with more than 2.5 million encounters. The Biden Administration argues that the Border Patrol, a force that depends on the federal Executive, is capable of cutting the barrier placed by the National Guard from the end of 2022. The agents affirm that the concertina has hindered some operations carried out, —and even the treatment of medical emergencies—and that makes it difficult to process immigrants who arrive on American soil.

Greg Abbott's administration, on the other hand, stated in October that by cutting the wire, Washington is “destroying Texas property and has disrupted local efforts to make the border more secure.” Local authorities believe the holes made by the Border Patrol make it easier for migrants to enter the United States. CNN has reported some cases where the barrier is destroyed by the state police themselves. This creates a passage through which police invite migrants to cross. When they do, they are arrested for trespassing.

The barbed wire has created a judicial tug-of-war. Texas sued the federal government in October for the destruction of the almost 50 kilometers of barrier, which is deployed on both public lands and private property. This is part of the Lone Star operation, launched in 2021 by Abbott, who has invested more than $11 million in 70,000 concertina rolls.

A month later, in November, a federal judge ruled in favor of the Border Patrol, stating that the Texas authorities had not proven with sufficient evidence that the uniformed officers were violating the law. The officer, Alia Moses, however, also questioned the methods of federal agents in allowing entry through those holes instead of taking immigrants to customs for processing.

The Abbott Government then appealed the decision. In early December, the Fifth Federal Circuit of Appeals, based in Louisiana, stopped Moses' decision and gave Washington a period to respond to the lawsuit. Days later he considered that the judge's ruling was wrong and that Customs and Customs Enforcement (CBP) employees should not cut the wire. This Tuesday, the Government raises the case to the Supreme Court.

This battle is one of the several fronts that the Biden Government maintains against Governor Greg Abbott, one of the most radical in the fight against illegal immigration. At the end of 2023, the Department of Justice threatened to file a new lawsuit against the State if it implements the controversial SB4. This law, approved by Congress and signed by the governor recently, criminalizes migrants, as it allows local police to detain anyone on suspicion of not having papers and take them before a state judge so that he can initiate a deportation process. Washington assures that the rule is unconstitutional and that it is willing to open a new legal controversy.

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