AUSTIN — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration Tuesday, accusing the federal government of illegally destroying state property for cutting and destroying razor wire fencing installed along the banks of the Rio Grande near the U.S-Mexico border.
Paxton, who recently survived a historic impeachment trial, filed the lawsuit in the Western District of Texas and says that by cutting the razor wire the state has installed, Texas cannot effectively stop migrants from entering the state illegally.
The lawsuit was filed at the same time as a special session of the Texas Legislature where lawmakers are debating whether to pass multiple border security-related proposals. It also comes as Texas is fighting another federal lawsuit over a different border-related policy.
“Texas has the sovereign right to construct border barriers to prevent the entry of illegal aliens,” Paxton said in a written statement.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said the agency does not comment on ongoing lawsuits.
“Generally speaking, 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,” the spokesman said in a statement.
Travis Considine, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, declined to comment on the lawsuit. U.S. Customs and Border Protection referred The News back to the Department of Homeland Security. Gov. Greg Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Homeland Security officials have previously said agents cut the razor-sharp wiring in order to reach migrants who might be at risk of drowning in the treacherous waters.
And internal documents from Customs and Border Protection have also said the wire fencing prohibits the agents from doing their job.
“The concertina wire inhibits agents from effectively and efficiently apprehending [an] at-risk population,” like families with infants and unaccompanied children, said an internal Customs and Border Protection memo from June 26, 2023, that was obtained by The News.
The controversy over border patrol agents removing the fencing also received further attention late last month as a surge in thousands of migrants in Eagle Pass overwhelmed local, state and federal officials. Video clips circulated on social media of border patrol agents cutting the razor wire. Abbott said on X, formerly Twitter, that the state would “fortify” the border.
“We will not back down,” Abbott said on Sept. 21.
The wire fencing is part of Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, a multibillion-dollar border security effort that has gone on for two years.
Abbott has increasingly made immigration and border security a key campaign issue in recent years. The governor has embraced a “hold the line” approach in order to try to curb illegal immigration.
The governor and attorney general have also had a combative relationship with President Joe Biden as they believe the federal government has not done enough to stop migrants from entering the state without proper documentation.
“They have taken additional steps to undercut any State that tries to secure its own border, which the federal government has itself abandoned,” said Paxton’s 30-page filing.
The lawsuit also draws attention to fentanyl, an opioid that has led to thousands of overdose deaths across the country in recent years.
Fentanyl has overtaken heroin as the drug most frequently involved in overdose deaths in the U.S. and is linked to more fatalities of Americans under 50 than any other cause of death.
“The fentanyl epidemic is now a nationwide problem that reaches far beyond Texas,” the filing says.
However, a majority of the fentanyl that enters the U.S. — close to 90% — comes through legal points of entry, the White House said last week.
A federal judge in September ordered the state to remove buoys placed in the Rio Grande. But Texas appealed that decision to a federal appeals court. A hearing in front of a three-judge panel took place earlier this month where judges expressed skepticism of the arguments from attorneys from the attorney general’s office.
The buoys, however, are still in the Rio Grande.
