
In a recent announcement, Ken Paxton, the Attorney General of Texas, has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration, alleging the illegal removal of concertina wire along the US-Mexico border. Paxton argues that the action carried out by federal agents in late September has debilitated the state’s border security apparatus.
The lawsuit contends that the removal of concertina wire, property owned by the State of Texas, disrupts border security measures, creating vulnerabilities at the border, hindering enforcement, and negatively impacting the state’s capability to effectively prevent illicit entry into its territory.
Harboring larger implications and strains, this lawsuit occupies a recent notch in the ongoing legal discourse between the Biden administration and the State of Texas amid the backdrop of a migrant surge challenging local and federal resources.
Mr. Paxton, in a statement, asserted that Texas maintains the sovereign authority to ensure border security to prevent unlawful entry. He rebuked the Biden administration’s ‘open-border’ policy that he suggests has led to physical wire-cutting, facilitating illegal entry, thereby compromising national security and jeopardizing the wellbeing of American citizens. He urged the courts to take definitive action against these, what he terms, “illegal” activities.
The list of defendants includes representatives from several federal organizations including the Department of Homeland Security, US Customs and Border Protection, along with specific officials from these respective bodies. When approached for a comment, DHS spokesperson declined, citing the ongoing legal proceedings.
However, counterclaims suggest precedent on the part of the Texan authorities, alleging that they too have cut through concertina wire in emergency medical crises. This observation was amplified by an email communication by a Texan official in July, intimating the necessity to ‘open’ the wire in contingencies.
Mr. Paxton’s lawsuit calls for restraints to be imposed on the defendants to cease from damaging or destroying property that doesn’t belong to them “without statutory authority and in violation of both state and federal law”.
The recent months have been fraught with tensions between the Biden administration and Texas over the handling of border security, escalating amid a swell in apprehensions at the southern border.
As migrant apprehensions continue to climb along the US-Mexico border, Texas’s deterrence strategy has garnered criticism. Previously, the Justice Department sued Texas over the alleged wrongful installation of buoys in the Rio Grande to block migrant crossings.