DOJ asks high court to let border agents cut razor wire

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to toss out a ruling that bars border agents from cutting or moving Texasowned razor wire along the Rio Grande, arguing the wire is endangering migrants.

The petition is the latest in an ongoing dispute over a key piece of Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security initiative, which has now sparked a slew of court battles testing the bounds of the state’s attempts to wade into immigration enforcement long left solely to the federal government.

The Department of Justice on Tuesday filed an appeal with the high court, arguing last month’s ruling by a three-judge panel of the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals “inverts the Supremacy Clause by requiring federal law to yield to Texas law.”

“If accepted, the court’s rationale would leave the United States at the mercy of States that could seek to force the federal government to conform the implementation of federal immigration law to varying state-law regimes,” the brief says.

Attorney General Ken Paxton in October sued to stop Border Patrol agents from tampering with the wire, arguing they have no authority to damage or seize state property that is not on federal land and that their actions are thwarting state border operations.

The appeals court granted a request by Texas to stop federal agents from “damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with” the roughly 29 miles of state-owned wire near Eagle Pass. It includes an exception for agents to cut or move the wire to respond to medical emergencies.

The DOJ argues the ruling “not only is legally erroneous, but also has serious on-theground consequences that warrant this Court’s intervention.”

Even with an exception for medical emergencies, the ruling could endanger migrants on the banks of the river, the brief says, as it can take 10 to 30 minutes to cut through the dense layers of razor wire.

“By the time a medical emergency is apparent, it may be too late to render life-saving aid,” the brief says.

The Biden administration is also suing to force Abbott to remove a string of buoys the state deployed in the Rio Grande last year. And the DOJ last week threatened to sue if Texas moves forward with legislation empowering state officials to remove people from the U.S. who they suspect of being in the country illegally.

Abbott has said his border efforts are necessary to stem the record number of border crossings under the Biden administration and has accused President Joe Biden of failing to secure the border.