(USNewsMag.com) – The state of Texas just filed a lawsuit against the federal government on Tuesday in an attempt to stop the Biden administration from cutting razor wire installed along the US-Mexico border to deter illegal immigrant crossings.
The lawsuit was filed in a Del Rio federal court by Attorney General Ken Paxton and accused the federal government of “undermining” efforts by the state of Texas to secure its own border. In a press release last Tuesday, Paxton said that the Lone Star State “has the sovereign right” to build barriers along the border “to prevent” illegal immigrants from entering.
In May, just before the ending of Title 42, the Texas government began to install miles of Dannert wire. The razor-sharp barbed wire was placed in sections of the border with high migrant traffic along the Rio Grande River and border towns like Eagle Pass and Brownsville.
Environmental and migrant advocates, as well as some internal personnel tasked with enforcing the use of the wire, are raising concerns that the fencing is having damaging effects. A medic and a state trooper also commented on the wire in July, calling it “inhumane” in a complaint that documented various cases of migrants with severe lacerations from the fencing.
The complaint also mentioned the buoy barrier installed in the Rio Grande as another part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star. The federal government sued Texas over the barrier and a judge ordered it removed in September, although it will be allowed to remain while the legal challenge continues in an appeal.
The barrier of razor-sharp wire was erected close enough to the river that some migrants kept in the Rio Grande water for hours before US Border Patrol showed up to process them, which is required by immigration law. Agents have had to cut the fire themselves in some cases in order to free border-crossers who are entangled in it.
The recent complaint claims that the federal government “illegally destroyed” Texas property and “disrupted” efforts by the state to secure its border.
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