
The Supreme Court recently ruled that federal agents could cut or remove razor wire placed along the southern border. Texas responded by offering to install razor wire on the private property of local ranchers free of charge.
Texas escalates feud with federal government, telling ranchers SCOTUS ruling on razor wire not final, offering to give ranchers razor wire as migrants are now sneaking into US through private property https://t.co/K7UQqibZBU pic.twitter.com/BHn5MWdyP4
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) January 25, 2024
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to allow federal agents to remove the razor wire after the Biden administration argued that the wire obstructed Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents from doing their job.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) did not take the ruling well and instead vowed to continue installing razor wire at the southern border despite the ruling.
“Texas’ razor wire is an effective deterrent against the illegal border crossings encouraged by Biden’s open border policies,” Abbott wrote. “We continue to deploy this razor wire to repel illegal immigration.”
Abbott seems less concerned with the Supreme Court ruling and more concerned with the crisis occurring at the border of his state. The Biden administration, on the other hand, has done little to fix the crisis.
According to the Daily Mail, “In the week before Christmas, more than 22,000 asylum-seeking migrants crossed the river separating the US from Mexico and into Shelby Park to get inside Eagle Pass, that only has a population of 28,000.”
That is just a snapshot of the millions of illegal migrants who have crossed the border into Texas since Biden took office. In December alone, federal data showed over 250,000 Notices to Appear (NTA), the highest since figures began being recorded in 2001.
An NTA represents pending asylum cases which means that there were at least 250,000 encounters at the border between asylum-seekers and CBP agents.
The 30 miles of razor wire that the state of Texas installed at the border was one of a few measures that Abbott has taken in the absence of federal help. He has also erected buoys in the Rio Grande, bused migrants to other sanctuary cities, and given state law enforcement officers the power to arrest migrants for illegally crossing the border.
The ruling by the Supreme Court was a blow to the state’s efforts, but Abbott and other state officials remain resilient in keeping the border secure. Now, they are giving the power to local property owners to protect their land as well.