The administration asks for intervention as the Texas appeals case continues.
The Department of Homeland Security has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to freeze an order issued by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that prohibits the border agents from removing concertina wire installed along the U.S.-Mexico border. The primary issue is who has the authority to control the border.
In 2021, the government of Texas received permission from private landowners to erect razor wire fencing on the sections of their lands that meet the U.S.-Mexico border. However, the border is managed by the federal government, so Customs and Border Patrol agents began removing the federally-unauthorized fencing. Texas sued President Biden’s administration, which resulted in the current block in the removal of the wire.
The president’s administration claims that allowing state authority to overrule federal authority “would leave the United States at the mercy of States that could seek to force the federal government to conform the implementation of federal immigration law to varying state-law regimes.”
In the Supreme Court filing, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote, “The injunction prohibits agents from passing through or moving physical obstacles erected by the State that prevent access to the very border they are charged with patrolling and the individuals they are charged with apprehending and inspecting.”
The attorney general of Texas said the state “has the sovereign right to construct border barriers to prevent the entry of illegal aliens.”
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For discernment for the justices as they consider the request to lift the temporary prohibition on border agents removing the razor wire.
- For the Texas attorney general and other state officials who are trying to prevent illegal immigration.
- For members of the president’s administration as they seek to continue current border policies.
Sources: Reuters, Daily Signal, The Hill
