Border Agents To Remove Razor Wire

In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court granted the Biden administration a significant victory by allowing federal border patrol agents to remove razor wire installed by Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border. The order followed a DOJ filing on January 12, which accused Texas of impeding Border Patrol’s access to certain border areas and requested court intervention.

The majority included Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and the court’s three liberals, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The dissenting votes came from conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh. The court did not provide an explanation for its decision, a common practice in emergency relief rulings.

The order overturned a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that prevented Border Patrol agents from cutting the concertina wire installed by Texas along the Rio Grande. Texas had independently installed this razor wire over the past three years as part of its efforts to address illegal immigration.

Border Patrol agents had started cutting through the wire in September to apprehend migrants and provide assistance to injured individuals. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued in October, alleging that federal agents had unlawfully damaged state property by seizing and destroying the razor wire more than 20 times.

The appeals court ruled that Border Patrol had not violated any laws, but it prohibited the agency from interfering with the concertina wire during the ongoing appeal. The Justice Department argued that Texas had added more razor wire, restricting access to a section of the Rio Grande, including a park with a boat ramp frequently used by Border Patrol for launching patrol boats.