A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed Border Patrol agents to cut the razor wire that Texas installed on the border between the United States and Mexicowhile a lawsuit over the wire continues.
The justices, by a 5-4 vote, granted an emergency appeal from the Biden administration, which has been in an escalating standoff over the Texas border and had opposed an appellate ruling in favor of the state.
The barbed wire along about 30 miles (48 kilometers) of the Rio Grande near the border town of Eagle Pass is part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s broader fight with the administration over law enforcement. of immigration.
Abbott also authorized the installation of floating barriers in the Rio Grande, near Eagle Pass, and allowed troops to arrest and jail thousands of immigrants accused of trespassing. The administration is also challenging those actions in a federal court.
Last month, a federal appeals court forced federal agents to stop cutting concertina wire. Large numbers of migrants have crossed through Eagle Pass in recent months.
In court papers, the administration said the cable prevents Border Patrol agents reach migrants when they cross the river and that, in any case, federal immigration law exceeds Texas’s own efforts to stop the flow of migrants into the country.
Texas officials have argued that federal agents cut the cable to help groups illegally cross the river before taking them for processing.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor sided with the administration. The Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas They voted with Texas.
No one gave any explanation for their vote.
