EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Tensions between the State of Texas and the Biden Administration continue to grow as they find themselves in a power struggle over who has a greater right to enforce immigration law.
The ongoing feud has played out through multiple fronts and lawsuits, with the latest update from the Supreme Court which ruled in favor of the Biden Administration by issuing a temporary order that allows Border Patrol to cut through the razor wire placed by the State in order to apprehend migrants along the Rio Grande in South Texas..
The order, however, doesn’t prevent the State of Texas from continuing to replace and roll out new concertina wire along the border.
University of Texas at El Paso Senior Lecturer in Political Science and Public Administration Abha Singh described what she believes is at the heart of the ongoing tensions.
“That this is an election year and both parties, Republicans and Democrats, are obviously going to manipulate this issue to gain votes and to make the other side look bad,” Singh said.
In response to the Supreme Court ruling, Texas has reportedly continued to place new razor wire along the border, and continued to block Border Patrol agents from accessing Shelby Park, an area of land near the Rio Grande at the border that belongs to the City of Eagle Pass, Texas, and where thousands of migrants have crossed.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has also continued to defend the State’s action, this week by saying Texas has the constitutional right to defend itself from an invasion, referring to the migrant crossing.
Singh explained that Abbott referred to Section 10 in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, but said that by the word “invasion” the framers were not envisioning asylum seekers.
“That section gives the State the right to defend the borders until the national military and national government arrives. Because at that time, we did not have all this modern mode of transportation like planes and cars. And the federal government military was small and scattered around. So it took them weeks and months to travel from one spot to another,” Singh said.
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