US Supreme Court agrees with Biden and allows cutting of barbed wire put in place by Texas | International
Biden won the round against Gov. Texas. for now. In a surprise decision, the United States Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Democratic administration in a dispute that has caused weeks of tension. The justices’ decision, split in a 5-4 vote, allows Border Patrol agents to cut the barbed wire that Greg Abbott’s government put up in Eagle Pass County to stop the entry of migrants from Mexico.
Neither Togado has publicly explained their decision. The vote, however, broke the conservative majority left by former President Donald Trump on the Constitutional Court. John Roberts, along with Supreme Court Chief Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined a progressive group made up of Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor in agreeing with the Biden administration on the emergency motion. Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Cavanaugh and Clarence Thomas voted against.
This Monday’s decision is not final. A trial aimed at settling responsibilities in border surveillance between the federal government and Texas is underway. Last month, a federal appeals court ordered Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents to stop destroying the wire. The Biden administration took the case to the Supreme Court. Biden won an important court victory on the matter last year, when the Supreme Court allowed him to set deportation priorities.
“The Supreme Court’s temporary order allows Biden to continue his illegal efforts to aid a foreign invasion of the United States,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said. “Destroying border barriers does not help enforce the law or provide security to Americans,” added the official, who assured that the fight “is not over.” Paxton still has to defend his case at a hearing on February 7.
The Abbott government, one of the most radical in its fight against illegal immigration, has put up 48 kilometers of barbed wire along the border with Mexico. The center of this fight against migrants is located in Eagle Pass County, which borders the Mexican city of Piedras Negras (Coahuila). Crossings there increased as the last leg of the journey became more dangerous for migrants in other border cities such as Juarez, in Chihuahua, or Reynosa, in Tamaulipas.
In addition to strengthening National Guard surveillance, Abbott implemented other controversial measures to reduce the flow of people to Texas. Since April 2022, it has shipped more than 100,000 immigrants on buses to Democratic cities, prompting the receiving authorities to demand that the White House change its immigration policy. He also placed buoys in the Rio Grande, the natural boundary between the United States and Mexico.
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Tensions have risen in recent days between Texas and the Biden administration. On the night of Friday, January 12, Mexican authorities notified the Border Patrol that two migrants were close to drowning on the US side of the border. On the same day, a few minutes earlier and at the same time, a mother and her two children died in the river while trying to reach the United States.
After being notified by members of the National Immigration Institute, members of the Border Patrol attempted to enter Shelby Park, an area of the border that has been guarded by state agents since Jan. 11. They refused them entry, arguing that superiors had given strict orders to prevent this Confederate force from entering even under “emergency conditions”.
The federal government maintains in the lawsuit that Concertina Kilometers impede the operation of federal authorities, who are constitutionally empowered to regulate and monitor the borders of the United States. The Supreme Court’s decision this Monday seems to align with these principles, although there is still much controversy between Biden and Abbott, who claims that his Lone Star operation has helped arrest nearly half a million people.
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