On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-Texas) filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration over federal agents cutting away razor wire barriers that had been set up along the southern border by the state government.
As Fox News reports, Paxton’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, targets the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), accusing the federal agencies of interfering with state efforts to secure the border by actively cutting away the razor wire barriers that had been set up by the state of Texas.
“By cutting Texas’s concertina wire, the federal government has not only illegally destroyed property owned by the State of Texas; it has also disrupted the State’s border security efforts, leaving gaps in Texas’s border barriers and damaging Texas’s ability to effectively deter illegal entry into its territory,” the lawsuit states.
“Texas brings this lawsuit to end this ongoing, unlawful practice which undermines its border security efforts,” the suit continues. “This Court can and should enjoin the federal defendants from continuing to destroy and damage private property that is not theirs—without statutory authority and in violation of both state and federal law.”
Due to the Biden Administration’s deliberate refusal to enforce federal immigration laws, the state of Texas has taken upon itself numerous measures to secure its southern border with Mexico. In addition to the razor wire installed in such locations as Eagle Pass, the state has also set up a massive wall of buoys along the Rio Grande River to deter illegal aliens from crossing the river.
Last month, Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) posted a video showing Border Patrol agents cutting away a portion of razor wire, deliberately allowing through a crowd of illegals. Abbott subsequently had the ruined wire replaced.
Federal officials have tried to justify such actions by claiming that illegal aliens can still be on American soil even if they are on the other side of such barriers, and that Border Patrol will still arrest them.
When asked about the lawsuit, a DHS spokesman simply said “we do not comment on pending litigation.”
“Generally speaking,” the spokesman continued, “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.”
Paxton released his own statement after the lawsuit was announced: “Americans across the country were horrified to watch Biden’s open-border policy in action: agents were physically cutting wires and assisting the aliens’ entry into our state. This is illegal. It puts our country and our citizens at risk.”
“The courts must put a stop to it,” Paxton added, “or Biden’s free-for-all will make this crushing immigration crisis drastically worse.”