McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — The State of Texas on Thursday appealed a federal judge’s ruling that will allow federal Border Patrol agents to take down border barriers that the state put along the Rio Grande in places like Eagle Pass and El Paso.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants reversed a ruling Wednesday by a U.S. District Judge Alia Moses with the Western District of Texas in Del Rio, which denies a preliminary injunction and permits federal agents to remove concertina wire that was put up by the state.
“I am disappointed that the federal government’s blatant and disturbing efforts to subvert law and order at our State’s border with Mexico will be allowed to continue,” Paxton said in a statement. “Biden’s doctrine of open borders at any cost threatens the safety of our citizens, and we will continue to fight it every step of the way.”
On Thursday, a notice of the state’s appeal to the Western District Court was sent to the Fifth Circuit Court.
In a tweet Thursday on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, Paxton wrote: “I have appealed a decision by a federal judge allowing Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to continue to destroy the State’s border barriers. Texas had requested that the court preliminarily enjoin the federal government from cutting, destroying, damaging, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s concertina wire fence until the court can hold a final trial.”
Spools of concertina wire were put along the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, by the State of Texas to deter illegal immigration from Piedras Negras, Mexico. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report File Photo)
Federal officials say the concertina wire spooled on the banks of the Rio Grande interferes with the Border Patrol’s ability to perform its duties and to address medical emergencies of migrants who are crossing the river from Mexico into the United States.
The State of Texas has spent over $10 billion in two years on Operation Lone Star, a border security initiative that includes the positioning of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, Texas Army National Guard at the border, the building of a border wall, and placement of border barriers like wire and shipping containers to prevent migrants from crossing illegally into the state.
On Oct. 30, the state was granted a temporary restraining order to stop federal border agents from cutting the razor wire.
At the time, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told Border Report that “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.”
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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