The Biden administration has petitioned the Supreme Court to allow Border Patrol agents to clear razor wire on the US-Mexico border that Texas has installed in an effort to prevent migrants from crossing into the state.
In a filing on Tuesday, the administration argued that it had jurisdiction under federal law to remove concertina wire Texas officials set near the Rio Grande.
“Federal law clearly gives Border Patrol agents the authority, without a warrant, to access private land within 25 miles of an international border,” the Justice Department wrote in its appeal to the Supreme Court.
The DOJ further argued that the razor wire, installed along 30 miles of land near Eagle Pass, Texas, prevented federal agents from accessing parts of the border.
“Like other law enforcement officers, Border Patrol agents operating in difficult conditions at the border must make contextual, sometimes split-second decisions about how to enforce federal immigration laws while maintaining public safety,” the filing said.
“But the injunction prohibits agents from bypassing or moving physical barriers erected by States that prevent access to the borders they claim to patrol and the individuals they claim to arrest and examine.”
The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court Tuesday to allow border agents to remove the razor wire. Getty Images Texas Governor Greg Abbott has vowed to continue installing barriers along the US-Mexico border. James Keivom
Last October, Texas sued the federal government, seeking to prevent border agents from cutting razor wire.
In December, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit temporarily blocked the agent from cutting it.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday vowed to continue building border barriers despite a possible Supreme Court battle.
“Biden is begging SCOTUS to let him cut the TX wires installed at the border. See you in court,” the Texas governor said in a tweet.
“The American people & the courts will reject Biden’s hostility to immigration law. TX will continue to deploy the National Guard to build border barriers & drive away illegal immigrants,” he added.
The roughly 30-mile-long razor wire was installed near Eagle Pass, Texas. Go Nakamura for the NY Post
The Lone Star State and the Biden administration have clashed over immigration enforcement amid record levels of illegal crossings that Abbott says have overtaken cities along the US-Mexico border.
Last week, the Justice Department threatened to sue Texas if it enforces a new law that allows state authorities to arrest, jail, prosecute and deport immigrants who enter the country illegally.
The DOJ is also suing the state over the construction of a floating barrier on the Rio Grande, which the court has ordered Abbott to remove.
Texas has taken more than 95,000 immigrants to sanctuary cities, including New York and Chicago, as part of an effort to get President Biden to “reverse course on his open borders policy,” according to Abbott.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
