A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the Biden administration overstepped when it tried to dismantle Texas’ razor-wire border fence.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Homeland Security to refrain from cutting through the wire in the area around Eagle Pass, a Texas border town that had been the scene of a major clash between the state and the Biden administration.
But the judges also ordered Texas to allow the feds access to Shelby Park, a site Texas National Guard troops took over earlier this year as part of the clash with Homeland Security.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott hailed the ruling.
“We continue adding more razor wire border barrier,” the Republican said on social media.
In the 2-1 ruling, the appeals court said Texas had a right to protect its property and that trumped the Biden administration’s complaints about trampling on federal immigration prerogatives or interfering with relations with Mexico.
The judges also spanked Homeland Security for wrongly blaming some migrant drownings on Texas’s stiff border measures.
Federal officials had claimed Texas “barred” Border Patrol agents from being able to attempt a rescue. That may have been a factor in the Supreme Court’s decision to issue a ruling in January, siding with the Biden administration.
Later developments in the case, however, proved the Biden claims were overblown and, in fact, the drownings were not connected to the state’s control of Shelby Park.
“Texas’s move into the park, it turned out, had only a marginal effect on Border Patrol’s access and had nothing to do with the drownings,” Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan wrote in the majority opinion.
Texas has erected razor wire, or concertina wire, along dozens of miles of the Rio Grande.
It is part of Mr. Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, an attempt by Texas to plug what it saw as gaps in border enforcement left when President Biden erased the stiff controls President Trump had put in place.
Other moves included erecting a state-funded border wall, putting a floating barrier in part of the Rio Grande, ordering National Guard troops and state police to enforce trespassing laws against illegal immigrants, and busing tens of thousands of migrants to sanctuary cities.
The Biden administration reacted with outrage and lawsuits, saying Texas was messing with Mr. Biden’s plans.
On the razor wire, the feds argued it was hurting relations with Mexico and threatened the safety of migrants attempting to cross.
The majority of the appeals court rejected both contentions.
Indeed, the appeals court said that while the razor wire “conceivably poses a risk to human safety,” so does the federal government’s immigration policy, which “facilitated and encouraged” illegal immigrants to make the dangerous journey in the first place.
Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez, in dissent, said she would have sided with the Biden administration and allowed razor wire to be cut.
She said the courts shouldn’t have been involved in the dispute at this point and the feds enjoy sovereign immunity from a challenge.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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